The wines are made by Matt Gregory
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English wines are grown at Walton Brook Vineyard on the Leicestershire Wolds. Walton Brook is a 4 hectare (10 acre) vineyard which is South facing and 100metres above sea level. It comprises of 200 million year old Jurassic fine grained limestone mud made up from carbonates of coral and shell. This is overlain with 2 million year old glacial deposits featuring limestone, flint and ironstone. Planted in 2009/2010 originally with 2,500 mixed Solaris, Seyval Blanc, Regent and Madeleine Angevine, subsequently with 2,000 each of Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Bacchus. Set in the middle of a 500 acre conventional arable farm the vineyard is farmed organically by Matt Gregory but will never achieve official status due to its location.
Italian wines are made at Villa Giada in Italy. They are certified by Valor Italia as being made from sustainably farmed grapes; no synthetic herbicides or pesticides are used and the greatest range of biodiversity is encouraged through minimal mowing and use of machinery in the vineyard. The wines are certified by Vegan OK, Azienda number 0716.
Notes on English 2021 vintage
2021 was a tricky vintage being cold and dry early on, and cold and grey later on. The grapes were all hand harvested from early October to early November, only picking when the each plot was perfectly ripe.
Ideally these wines should be served after being chilled upright, there is the potential for a bit of gushing if the bottle has been handled roughly before serving, but treated with care it should all stay in the bottle until you pour it.
Notes on English 2022 vintage
2022 was hot and dry. Early budding Solaris still succumbed to frost though. The heat and very high UV meant disease pressure was very low all season, with just a tiny bit of botrytis creeping in at the end. Drought conditions and high temperatures meant that berries did not swell fully and grape skins were quite thick. The fruit ripened early and was of a very high quality, but volume was down quite a bit and the thick skins meant that the small berries had less juice than usual. Overall, a super tasty but quite small vintage.
The Red 2022
English red wine
11% alcohol. 50/50 Pinot Noir/Pinot Gris. 715 bottles.
Vegan friendly
Pinot Noir and 1/3 of the Pinot Gris was de-stemmed. The remaining 2/3 of the Pinot Gris was pressed whole bunch. The pressed juice from the Pinot Gris was returned to the tank of de-stemmed grapes. Due to the ripe nature of the vintage careful fruit handling was critical to prevent over extraction, the tank was only plunged once to keep the fermentation happy. Pressed out after 4 weeks and allowed to go through malolactic naturally. Rested in stainless steel on lees for 14 months and bottled in February 2024.
The Ancestral White 2022
English dry lightly sparkling white white
11% alcohol. 100% Bacchus. 1057 bottles
No added sulphites, vegan friendly
2/3 of the fruit was pressed whole bunch and added back to the tank of the remaining whole bunches, this flooded carbonic skin maceration was left for 10 days before being pressed. The wine was bottled without being fined or filtered and no additions were made (no added sulphur)
The Ancestral Pink 2021
English dry lightly sparkling pink wine
11% alcohol. Thirds of Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Bacchus. 1940 bottles
No added sulphites, vegan friendly.
Piont Noir and Pinot Gris and Bacchus were carbonically macerated separately for 10 days. They were then pressed and the Pinots underwent alcoholic fermentation togther and the Bacchus seperately. Fermentation was kick started by the addition of a Pied de Cuve culture that we started in the vineyard 10 days previously. The wine was bottled without being fined or filtered and no additions were made (no added sulphur).
The carbonic fruit is evident, but the Bacchus brings early Spring hedgerow aromas to a glass that glows rose gold.
The Ancestral Red 2021
English dry lightly sparkling red wine
10.5 % alcohol. 70% Pinot Noir 30% Pinot Gris. 1265 bottles
No added sulphites, vegan friendly.
Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris were de-stemmed, crushed and fermented together. Fermentation was kick started by the addition of Pied de Cuve culture that we started in the vineyard 10 days previously. The ferment was treated very gently throughout and not plunged or pumped over. The wine was bottled without being fined or filtered and no additions were made (no added sulphur)
It is red and it is fizzy, it is an English Autumnal country walk (hips, haws, sloes) in a glass, it would have made a cracking still wine in retrospect but that is the beauty of hindsight.
The Field Blend 2021 SOLD OUT
English dry still pink-ish wine
10% alcohol. 35% Seyval, 30% Solaris, 10% Bacchus, 10% Regent, 10% Pinot Noir, 5% Pinot Gris. 525 bottles, 55 kegs.
Vegan friendly
Solaris was first to be picked and was fermented 50% whole bunch and 50% pressed juice and left for two weeks post alcoholic fermentation before being pressed to tank. The balance of the grapes were the last to be picked, they were destemmed and co-fermented on skins for a week before being pressed. The co-ferment established a yeast flor or veil and was aged under it for 3 months. Sulphur was added at the rate of 20ppm just before bottling but the wine was not fined or filtered.
The Italian Orange 2021 SOLD OUT
A dry aromatic white, an orange wine from 100% Moscato. Extended weeks on grape skins. 900 bottles
Hand-picked Moscato from North of the village of Canelli, Piedmont, NW Italy. A proportion of whole bunch fermentation in stainless steel with natural indigenous yeasts. A slow fermentation needing no temperature control, the mass of the skins preventing diurnal peaks and troughs. The wine was left on the grape skins for quite a few weeks post fermentation before gentle pressing in a traditional basket press. Bottled un-fined and unfiltered, with the minimum addition of sulphur.
Deeply golden and a touch hazy in the glass. Floral and aromatic with classic grapey aromas backed up with tangerine pith, honeysuckle, lavender and a spicy edge of clove and cinnamon. The palate is intense and dry with mid-palate weight and salinity; all that is promised on the nose is delivered. Extraordinarily persistent and opening out as the bottle is open longer.
The Italian Red 2019
100% Barbera de-classified to Vino Rosso for bureaucratic reasons. 1100 bottles.
The grapes were hand sorted and fermented with wild yeasts in 2 six year old 500 litre tonneaux. Very limited handling for a very gentle infusion: hand plunged just twice and not pumped over. Left on skins for 43 days before pressing in a traditional basket press, left on lees in stainless steel before bottling in October 2020 without fining or filtration but a very small (20 ppm) addition of sulphur.
The 2018 version was a fully certified Piemonte Barbera D.O.P but the general bureaucratic nonsense that went with it was not worth the effort, so this vintage I have declassified out of the system entirely. This wine is 100% Barbera but I can’t say that on the label, or strictly say the vintage, but the lot number is quite informative.
Although this wine is not the subversive one the Italian authorities think it is, it is pushing the boundaries of what is usual for Barbera in this particular corner of the world. The tradition is to handle Barbera quite a lot as the tannins can be quite shy and soft, so plunging and pumping help get more extraction, pressed off skins fairly smartly after alcoholic fermentation and then either a quick rest in steel or an extended stay in oak before bottling. Conversely The Italian Red is very much left alone, and for quite a long time before pressing, and again left alone in tank for an extended period before bottling. The result is a Barbera that has finesse and structure without oak as a supporting character.
The Italian Field Blend 2019
Indigenous Piemontese varieties (Barbera, Moscato, Nebbiolo, Dolcetto and Gamba di Pernice) picked on the same day and co-fermented. 400 bottles.
When we started to harvest the Barbera grapes for the The Italian Red I reminded Andrea we need some extra fruit for the Field Blend, and asked where we could source the rest of the fruit. At this point the conversation about the Field Blend was not so much denied but more conveniently forgotten on a busy harvest day. It became apparent that I was not just going to be able to grab what grapes I wanted from the back of the picking truck, as the fruit wasn’t being picked. Hiving off some Barbera was straightforward, and there was a row of Gamba di Pernice in the Quercia vineyard too, so I could divert the picking team to 5 minutes to get a couple of crates of that. Not yet a proper blend though.
By 4pm the Barbera and Gamba made it back to the winery but I realised I was going to have go and find and pick the rest of the grapes myself. Andrea lent me the inconspicuous Nissan van, hastily drew me a quick map of which vines I could pick from and his Mum lent me the secateurs she used for her roses. It had been a long day already, but I found a plot of Moscato that had been left as underripe 10 days previously, the only rows of Dolcetto that Andrea has and the 5 rows of Nebbiolo planted by his Grandfather randomly at the top of one of the Moscato slopes.
Getting back to the nearly deserted winery I popped all the Moscato as whole bunches into an 500 litre tonneaux and ran the red grapes through the de-stemmer and topped the barrel up, and it all just about fitted in perfectly. By the next morning it was fermenting away merrily already. The ferment was left alone, hand plunged a couple of times and left on the skins for 6 weeks. Pressed and popped into fibreglass tank on lees for 10 months before bottling without fining or filtration but a small (20 ppm) addition of sulphur.
Terrific lightly chilled, it is aromatic and engaging. The tannic varieties fell out with each other for a while, but they have come to an amicable understanding that is textural as well as structural.
Label art
Italy – Vanessa Stone vanessastoneartist.com
England – Jojo Cooper jojocooper.co.uk
Technical sheets for the wines are here, please get in contact for access