Court Garden Wine Library

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2010

In 2010 things got off to a good start with below-average rainfall in the spring with good levels of sunshine and temperatures peaking in June. A dry July is always a help, August was wetter, but September was drier. 2010 produced some excellent fruit and was our first really good harvest. Of no consequence to the fruit but an unusual weather occurrence happened on the last day of the harvest in the 3rd week of October. We awoke to a vineyard white from a heavy frost, initially there was a question of whether the fruit quality had been impaired, but although cold the centre of the berries were not frozen. The clear skies that had allowed the frost soon welcomed the sun to warm things up and by 10am the white had gone and by noon all looked completely normal, but by 4 in the afternoon the leaves had gone brown and crinkly, the next morning all the leaves were on the ground. We have not seen a frost at that time since, but it was a good omen as the 2010 vintage yielded a great crop of gold medals.

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2011

2011 followed a drier winter, an open autumn is always welcome on the farm, and the dry conditions allowed us to spread some compost in the vineyard. Modest rainfall in the spring was helpful, modesty may be the theme for 2011, temperature not as high and less sunshine hours than 2010, but the summer seemed to be longer. The fruit was smaller and ripened well, in fact we were surprised that smaller fruit ripened quicker. The pinot noir was so ripe we could not make a blanc de noirs it was too pink! Luckily plenty of 2010 to tide us through. Nice quality but modest quantity sums up the year.

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2012

2012 was the year to forget. Too much rain and not enough sunshine. Nothing grew well except perhaps grass. The classic varieties struggled, but the still varieties planted in 2008 were looking promising, however the hedgerows were devoid of fruit and the birds were desperate and found the bird-scarers much less scary, they ate a good share of the classic grapes and the entire crop of the still varieties in one night. Some vineyards did not think it worth picking at all, but we managed a minimal 2 tonnes, which we vinified, but held it back to blend into the following year. Grapes are picked by our wonderful team of pickers and placed in boxes to be picked up and taken to the winery. In a year when grapes were so short it was frustrating to find a string of ducks had waddled into the vineyard and were helping themselves straight from the boxes.

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2013

After a wet December and only average rainfall in the early months the vines made a good start. A dry June and July allowed a good fruit set, and a summer of modest average temperature and sunshine produced a worthwhile quality crop, but unspectacular yields.

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2014

2014 followed a dry December, but plenty of rain in January and February made the vineyard pretty sticky, but only modest rainfall through March to May rescued the situation and then June was particularly dry. The summer was then warm, even if the August rain was a little challenging, overall it was a good year for the vineyard and produced a record harvest with great quality across all the varieties.

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