natural wine – Matt Gregory Wines

20th April 2020

Not Vinitaly

Late April, the cherry blossom, gorse and rapeseed is out and lots of wines are freshly bottled. Where are we? Verona for Vinitaly of course!
Except that of course we are not. Covid-19 has seen to that, so here we all are in Lockdown, and it really does seem to be everyone. The skies are free from vapour trails and the supermarkets have run out of flour. Again.

The 2019 wines from The English Winemaker are actually still in tank, which is what we had decided in any case, but the logistics of bottling are a bit interesting due to lack of staff, and well, bottles. Businesses across the world are feeling the effect, and the wine industry is no different. I should be out and about selling the end of the 2018s and drumming up interest for the 2019s, instead I’m not.

On a happy note we re-tasted the tank sample of the Field Blend, so it had been in bottle (not properly bottled, just squirted out of the tank into glass) for about 8 weeks. It has calmed down quite impressively, it is still super aromatic and the tannins are still quite feisty but there is more harmony and it definitely developing in the right way. The 2018 Dry Moscato “Mascot” was also revisited, so about 15 months in bottle, and it is looking top notch even though I say so myself.

If you are interested in getting hold of some of the 2018s (Barbera and skinsy Dry Moscato), or would like to express interest in the 2019s once there are samples available please do get in touch.

12th November 201912th November 2019

Italian vintage recap

The 2019 vintage in Northern Italy is now complete and the wines are safely wrapped up in tank.

First pressing of Field Blend
Free run Barbera
Racked Moscato

The fruit for the dry Moscato “Mascot” was the very first fruit picked the season. This had the potential for the fermentation to start slowly, but actually kicked in and was merrily bubbling away within 24 hours. I slightly increased the volume of whole bunch fruit and cut back on the cap plunging but more or less the same procedure as the 2018 wine. Fewer days on skins post fermentation has led to a wine with a fine texture and a really elegant palate .

The Barbera has been fermented in the same two old tonneaux 500 litre barrels as last year. The minor finesses have been an earlier picking and fewer punch downs but otherwise a carbon copy of the successful 2018 wine. The major change for the 2019 will be that I am de-classifying out of the Italian DOC/DOP system completely. I will have significantly less paperwork to deal with, but I won’t be able to say “Barbera” on the label. Current working title is “Both Barrels” for reasons that are apparent.

New for 2019 is the Field Blend. I harvested only indigenous Piemontese varietals in roughly the proportions that they are grown in the vineyard and co-fermented them in one old tonneaux. It’s not exact, but we have roughly 35% Moscato which was all fermented as whole bunch, 35% Barbera, 10% Nebbiolo, 10% Dolcetto and 10% Gamba di Pernice (you might have to look that one up). In my head I thought I might end up with a light, chillable, smashable Summer red. It’s not even remotely turned out like that; deeply aromatic on the nose but super savoury and dense on the palate with a cobweb of superfine tannins holding it altogether. I love it and I’m slightly over excited by it considering the tiny volume made.

The intention is to release the Moscato and Field Blend in the late Spring of 2020 and the Barbera in the early Autumn of 2020. Anticipated volumes are not more than 80 cases of Moscato and Barbera and in the region of 25 cases of the Field Blend.

10th September 2019

Vintage 2019: Start your engines!

And we’re off!

Beautiful Moscato grapes are in from the vineyard and fermentation is off and away. We selected a portion of the cleanest fruit, well it was all clean to be fair, to use for the whole bunch element and the rest went in de-stemmed. Started off smelling like really verdant grape juice but by the next morning it is was Acacia honey and stem ginger. Amazing stuff.

The rest of the crop is a little tardy this year so hanging fire on the Barbera and Field Blend for a minute or two yet.