Along the Watchtower

The next release from Dan & Nic at Offbeat will be with us soon, having been bottled today, the 21st of June. Whilst there's a little more of this one to go around, quantities are still small and have mostly been allocated already so please do get in touch if you'd like us to set some of the last bottles aside for you.

Watchtower is a direct-pressed Pinot Meunier, aged in an 800 litre Amphora with no added sulphur.

Originally destined for a sparkling, Dan admitted he'd grown a bit tired of being tied to the style and was pleased as he tasted through winter and into spring that the wine was going to work nicely without any secondary fermentation. A late malolactic fermentation has filled out the frame, and with the final signs of that process just bubbling to the surface, Dan will be bottling under crown cap to retain a little of the residual CO2.

Fruit for Watchtower was sourced from a grower Dan has known since his days at Langham: Colin Hawkins, whose vines are planted on chalk soils outside Dorchester. Now into his 70's Colin works conventionally but diligently in the vineyard, with every process undertaken himself, by hand. Dan's been trying to convince Colin that he doesn't need to listen to scaremongering agrochemical companies and should give organic agriculture a go, but he's yet to be convinced. Dan remains hugely optimistic though.

Whilst finding good organic fruit at the volume needed proved tricky for Dan & Nic in 2020, things are looking good for the future:
"I honestly thought 2 or 3 years ago it would take us 10 years to get to where we are today with organic agriculture in the UK. I think in a couple of years we're going to have more certified or responsibly farmed fruit than we can shake a stick at. We're lucky that so many of the people we work with have seen the light and have been making the change, and there's new plots cropping up all over the place that people are planting, doing things like regenerative agriculture from the beginning; it's all so encouraging. Things can change!"

PINK-ISH
2020 - Wiltshire - Watchtower - Pinot Meunier

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