Harvest 2020, It's a Wrap Up!!!

I can hardly believe it has been a week since we harvested our grapes. A massive thank you to all who came and helped do the fastest harvest in the history of Bsixtwelve Wine. I think the mention of the picnic lunch at the beginning of the day may have helped and we were done in a couple of hours. I definitely could not have done it without you. 

I would never know if leaving the grapes in the vines for a further week was a wise move or not, as the extra 3 days of sun that I wanted to give my girls were followed by solid rain and wind. The grapes swell and unfortunately started to split, which broke my heart because they have been looking so pretty and golden. Anyway, as Tom from Stopham Estate (the winery where we have been making our wine) said to me, “remember we are making wine, not a fruit display!” That made me laugh out loud and lifted my spirit. Anyway, the sugars had definitely gone up, (with a potential alcohol level of 11.1%) and the acidity came down (to 9.4g/l, the ideal is 9), so maybe it was not such a bad thing to wait for a further three days of sun, but, we will have to wait at least a year more to taste that. We picked 2 tons of grapes, which is a small yield, but I am sure the quality has made up for it.

2020 will be the year of experimenting for Bsixtwelve, We are making our delicious 100% single vineyard Pinot Blanc still wine at Stopham Estate, in the same style as we have been producing it since the first vintage in 2017. However, we are also choosing a few different methods of production, under the wise and watchful eye of Tim Phillips at Charlie Herring in the New Forest. This will allow me to help the grapes express a few of their other personalities. Watch the space because it is a very exciting time. The new styles will involve skins and a bunch of other very inspiring and thrilling processes. After all, wine is alive and can have infinite permutations. 

As I reflect back on the season, I cannot but feel nostalgia for all those hours spent in the vineyard, from the pruning in January (which David and B will remember well) to the leaf stripping and bunch/grape selection that I am sure Lizzie will never forget. Covid-19 made it more challenging, but we are getting through it. The next chapter starts now, the winemaking, as intriguing and exhilarating as you can imagine, that will result in the delicious drink that will bring us all together again, because after all, ‘tis about the people’. I have attached a link of some of the pictures and video we took on the day, but please share any you have taken too. Also, there are still a few cases left of Bsixtwelve 2018 if you would like to order on our website. 

And then, we will start the cycle all over again. How lucky are we...