With bottling completed, we now leave our 2020 vintage to its own devices, with the 2nd fermentation taking place in bottle, forming those all-important bubbles, and taking on flavours from the lees.
This is not a time to rest on our laurels, as our attention now turns to the vineyard once again in preparation for the next harvest. Following on from pruning, this week we are dropping the wires and tying down the vines in the vineyard. Pruning has taken the vines back to their principal canes, which now need tying down horizontally. This will ensure that all the shoots grow upwards from the cane and the grapes hang nicely, allowing us to easily trim the leaves, manage the vines and harvest the grapes, when the time comes. At this time, we also drop the horizontal wires that support the vines – we will raise these again over time as and when the new shoots grow and require support.
