New from Offbeat!
In what is becoming a welcome annual tradition as we approach summer proper, we are able to begin releasing wines from our UK growers' cellars.
Next up are two new releases from Nic & Dan at Offbeat: Wild Juice Chase and Field Notes 3!
Field Notes 3 is a textural, pithy, white assemblage from the leaner 2021 vintage, alive with acidity and tension. The third edition in the Field Notes series: using fruit mainly sourced from a parcel of (un-certified )organically farmed Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay grown by Duncan McNeill, on a mineral-rich blue clay in the Crouch Valley, Essex. In for good measure is a little Chardonnay from our pals Lucie & Jules at Ham Street in Kent, a re-generative and certified (in 2022, after this vintage) organic vineyard on a mix of clay, silt and loam.
The lion's share of the blend is Duncan's Pinot Blanc, initially handled in three different ways; direct press, 24-hour whole bunch maceration and hand-destemmed with a 10-day maceration. The Chardonnay was all hand- destemmed and underwent a 10-day maceration.
Following 10 months of fermentation and elevage in various vessels: used oak barrels, amphora and stainless-steel vat, the various components were bottled via gravity with zero additions and in line with the lunar calendar.
Wild Juice Chase is a brambly, frothy red pet-nat primed for picnic drinking. Bottled-summer.
Sourced from a small, nearly wild plot of 39-year-old Triomphe and Bacchus vines grown on clay over chalk in the Test Valley, Hampshire. Still farmed today by Tim Ayers who planted the vines by hand in the early 1980s.
Semi-carbonic Triomphe from 2021 was aged in French oak for 12 months, before blending with a co-ferment of direct-press Triomphe and 2-day macerated Bacchus from the 2022 vintage.
Whilst Alex was helping out at Offbeat over harvest in October, he received a text from Dan in the middle of the night: "Think I've miscalculated the Juice Chase. We need to get it into bottle now! Want to help?"
So in the vain hopes of avoiding disgorging, Al & Dan set to bottling Wild Juice Chase at 11pm on October 22nd with no additions. The wine was eventually disgorged by hand in early spring.
Wild Juice Chase is available now in limited quantities, and Field Notes 3 in good volume.
Both wines will be featured on June 27th as part of the collaborative dinner at Eline - who have designed a four-course menu to pair perfectly with four wines by Nic & Dan. The first dinner will be at Eline on the 27th of June, and almost a month later, on the 23rd of July, they'll be hosting lunch at Offbeat's Salisbury winery.
Details and links to tickets are available here.
