Last week we picked some of our Chardonnay grapes and
crushed them by hand to make a Pied de Cuve. The idea of this is to cultivate
naturally occurring yeasts on the skins of the grapes which can be used to
ferment wine.
Using natural yeasts in this way, instead of commercial
yeasts, means we can make two types of ‘natural wines’ - a biodynamic sparkling
and a Petillant Naturel. We hope that these wines will have a real sense of ‘place’
or terroir, having been made with
natural yeasts from the vineyard. Many people enjoy biodynamic and natural wines
as they are lower in alcohol, softer in bubbles and have very few sulphites
added.
The winemaker has very little control over the process of
making these wines and has to rely on nature to do its work. As far as we are
aware, no other vineyards in England have made a Pet Nat so maybe Albury
Vineyard will be the first. Most people either love or hate wines made in this
way. We will be interested to see what you think of ours!
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