Owl’s Wine
WINEMAKER
Alex Thorp
TYPE OF AGRICULTURE
Negocé (organic certified, biodynamic conversion)
VINEYARD AREA
4 hectares (Ham Street Wines)
COUNTRY, REGION, SUBREGION
England, South East, Kent
Owl’s Wine is the result of a long-tailed 12 month collaborative project, highlighting a problem we're keen to help solve.
With the chance to make some wine in 2022, Al knew he had the perfect opportunity to champion the cause.
We're pleased to release OWL'S WINE and TANK REPAIR FUND: two new wines bottled entirely in reused glass, labelled with reused paper and packaged in reused cardboard.
We all produce a lot of waste in this industry. We believe re-use is the way forward. London is a huge centre of consumption, surrounded by newly emerging areas of production. It puts the city in a unique position: with some creative thinking across the industry, there is an opportunity here to bring bottle reuse into the loop.
In the summer of 2023, during delivery runs in our electric van, we collected bottles from many dedicated London venues that saved their waste for us. Half were sourced for Sophie Evans' first vintage, the rest for this project. Each venue is credited on the label: we are hugely thankful for their help in completing this pilot project!
The team at AGAIN cleaned the bottles before sending back to Offbeat in Salisbury to bottle the wines in September 2023.
The wines themselves were made in 2022 by Al, using fruit in biodynamic conversion grown by Lucie & Jules at HAM STREET, with the help (and cellar space) of Nicola & Daniel at OFFBEAT, with some valuable assistance from our friends Paris Barghchi, Emily-Rose Lucas and Samuel Munster.
The brilliant crew at PAGEMASTERS saved us reams of scrap paper to Riso print the labels on the reverse, all hand-glued with non toxic glue by Al and Jenny Cox.
This release represents the culmination of a lot of teamwork, and a celebration of communities coming together to help promote change.
There are less than 300 bottles produced of each cuvee of the 2022 vintage, all movements are by gravity, and the wine has been bottled with no additions.
For any UK wholesale and stock enquiries, please contact hello@winesutb.com
WINES
Made in the ‘Clairet’ style we love so much: that magic halfway-point between a rose and light red where the fruit is deep, the acidity is bright, and the refreshment is big. Soft, juicy, high-toned fun.