wE HAVE BABIES!

We’ve, made the bold decision to add 500 Pinot Noir Vines to the vineyard to complement our existing award winning varieties...and we’re planting today!

This new variety will enable us to widen our offer and increase our range of still and sparkling wines.

Pinot Noir produces beautiful light bodied red wines which offer high acidity and medium tannins.  It’s flavoursome fruity notes make it a popular choice for wine drinkers and we are excited to be able to add it to our collection. It’s a versatile variety and one of the three primary grapes found in Champagne.  We hope to blend with our white varieties to make more Award winning English sparkling wine and also use it to produce soft and fruity still reds

Best grown in cool climates, Pinot Noir, It’s the second most grown variety in the UK, accounting for 26% of total plantings.

Now we have decided where to plant the vines (considering soil content, weather conditions, and temperature  -  which all effect the grapes flavour), we will plant the 500 grafted vines spaced at 1.2m in rows 2.3m apart.

Growing Pinot Noir can be tricky, but we have recently conducted a soil analysis which revealed the land at Vineyard is perfect.  Unlike many plants, vines struggle to produce fruits in soils that are too rich in nutrients and they don’t like water round their roots. At Kerry Vale Vineyard our soil has a low pH and excellent drainage – creating perfect growing conditions for our baby vines! Timing is also very important – we waited until spring to plant as vines do best when planted after the last freeze and when there is decreased chance for frost

These new vines will take 2-3 years to grow a harvestable crop followed by a further 6 – 12 months of waiting while the grapes are turned into wine. Viticulture (wine growing) and winemaking is definitely not for the impatient!