The end of the year roundup - 2019 another year of firsts...
Firstly, thanks to everyone who helped me again this year! This was the second year I’ve run the vineyard and everything gets easier with practice. Mind you, saying that - it has still been a huge learning curve. Now the year has ended I can look back and judge that it’s been a year of consolidation and putting in some solid foundations.
posing for the official photo during the roll call.
One highlight was finding out that the Bacchus received a medal in the Wine GB Awards. I would have submitted the Schonburger but it was still in the winery. Stepping away from normal life to head into London and spend an afternoon with industry people was exciting. It was satisfying to demonstrate or remind people that we exist and celebrate that our wine is good.
The vineyard also underwent some changes this year. We invested in pruning to help regenerate the vines and improve the yield. This more extreme pruning did work but was a double edged sword. It took a long time and trying to tie up the vines and pick up the prunings before spring became impossible. Half the vineyard was tied up beautifully and half was a bit of a disaster. I had a few helpers but I needed many more hands than mine to complete that task in time. So that was a stressful start to the year.
hanging out with the bees
It’s the second year when we have done no weedkilling in the vineyard and at one point in the season we were rewarded by an explosion of clover and bees. I enjoyed spending quite some time sitting on the floor trying to take bee photos which after a busy farmers market was the perfect way to unwind.
This year was also noticeable because the workaway scheme came to an end. We’ve had workaways stay with us over many years and we really enjoy their company. All of a sudden the helping pair of hands has gone. I was fortunate that Harriet got in touch with me. An RAU student looking for summer work experience who loved being outside as well as talking to people. She was a secret sales weapon, a welcome part of the family and a fall back in the vineyard when I couldn’t do everything.
We also tried hosting a few new events in the vineyard, from an NFU celebration to Malmesbury Carnival. We opened the vineyard up for the day, did lots of tours, sold lots of wine and also raised some money for the local charity.
Harvesting was quite late in the year and was more complicated than 2018. I’ve never seen grapes split before from excessive water but the incessant rain meant grapes were exploding and the quality of the crop started heading down hill quickly. The high yield also slowed down the ripening process - which stalled due to the weather. Thankfully we had a great number of volunteers turn out for harvesting and being volunteers they were excellent at saving as many bunches as possible. The saturated field meant the lorry couldn’t enter and we had to try and load it using a van and a ride on mower to shuttle back and forth up the road. I planned to get a lovely picture of everyone at the end of harvesting but you can see in the picture the sun is setting and the last few hardly souls were helping to get the remaining empty boxes onto the lorry before time ran out. Despite the rush when the sun came out it made a beautiful end to the day.
There were no disasters on the second day we harvested and I managed to get my photo. Harvesting is rewarding and exhausting, Not surprisingly people often come for part of the day and have to leave before the end. Getting to meet so many people is my personal highlight and every year there are more people to meet. It’s hard to put into words how it feels when a group of (mostly) strangers come together in a big team effort - over the day people get to know each other and it makes me feel that I’ve got lots of people positively pushing me forward and helping our vineyard succeed. It was probably about 15 years since my father had run a family/friends harvest and it was before social media. Over the years he struggled to find people so he gave up looking. For me, seeing 30 odd people sitting in our barn having jacket potatoes, baked beans and other home cooked goodies is quite surreal and food for the soul.
We also moved into the modern world…and by that I mean this website. It took me a while to make it happen but I’m pleased we have a great foundation now to build on.
In October, I dipped my toe into public speaking. Not surprisingly after corralling groups around the vineyard for two years I feel a more equipped to venture into vineyard talks although I definitely have imposter syndrome. I’ve found myself speaking at a formal dinner event and also on BBC radio Wilts. My default now is to say to yes to most things. When I took the vineyard on last year it frequently felt like there were insurmountable challenges and it’s why I’m truly grateful to all the incredible people who have emerged and been so supportive. I haven’t been alone and I’m sure may of you will have met Esther or Louise at harvesting. It’s with a little pride I can say that after difficult times we’re still here and the future looks brighter.