Titch Hill (Alex Tristram & Sam Bunker)
WINEMAKERS
Alex Tristram & Sam Bunker
TYPE OF AGRICULTURE
Organic uncertified
VINEYARD AREA
3.5 hectares
COUNTRY, REGION, SUBREGION
Titch Hill is the project of Alex Tristram and Sam Bunker, who met while studying winemaking at Plumpton in 2017. The vines are planted on a farm that has been in Alex's family for generations, with his uncle taking a keen interest in environmental restoration in the early 1980s, repairing the damage done across the UK by post-war industrial farming.
Finishing Plumpton, Alex returned home to begin the winemaking project, with Sam - who grew up nearby - soon joined him as his collaborator. Alex & Sam look after the vines, themselves part of a wider, hollistic, organism that also includes livestock, arable wheat & barley, with sheep grazing in the vineyards through winter.
In organic conversion but soon to be certified, they planted 3.5 hectares of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir & Pinot Meunier in 2019. In the last couple of years, they have also planted 4 hectares of 12 different PIWIs - all with a view to completely reducing their input, allowing more time to focus on soil health and diversity.
They will begin to treat the vines exclusively with herbal, plant teas with fungicidal properties. So far the only other inputs have been minimal amounts of copper and sulphur.
On the high chalk of the South Downs, the coastal influence is immediately apparent - they are perhaps one of the closest vineyards to the sea in the UK - and work in the winery is as minimal as possible to allow the fruit to speak for itself, they are strictly no additions.
Their first vintage is a joyful collection with a true sense of place, produced primarily from the 3.5 hectares of Chardonnay, Pinots Noir & Meunier they planted in 2019. The wines are properly delicious, immediate and dynamic, with a complexity that belies the youth of both the vines and the project.
It's a thrill to have them joining the family, another shining example of proactive, sustainable agriculture in the UK and excellent, gleeful winemaking.
For any UK wholesale and stock enquiries, please contact hello@winesutb.com
More on Titch Hill:
WINES
Just-ripe berries pinched from the bowl on the kitchen counter post-rinse, someone is grinding white pepper in the next room, and a summer thunderstorm has just cleared overhead. Pet Nat at it's finest, bringing pure refreshment and instant retrogression to summers past.