Author: Khalid
Thursday Lates
Join us at the vineyard to while away a few hours on a Thursday evening this summer.
Every Thursday from now until mid/late September, we will be firing up the BBQ and opening the bar under the canopy at the winery from 5:30pm -8:30pm.
Good vibes, wine, food, friends basking in the summer sunset!
Drink our wines, have a bite to eat and relax watching the sun go down. We are collaborating with @cooper.becka who is dreaming up some sublime menus, taking advantage of delicious wild game from the Estate.
Pretzel rolls filled with barbecued partridge, venison or pigeon with fresh salsa verde, roasted tomatoes and harissa or mayonnaise as well as Coop’s amazing vegan burger and some lighter snacks like Padron peppers and BBQ halloumi. The Landy bar will be in full operation, serving wine by the glass and by the bottle.
Our award-winning PINK NV, WFB 2020 and STILL PINK 2023 chilled and ready to serve.
The mags are tasting epic!
Taste our wines by the glass or bottle and compare notes to the same wines in magnum. We are offering all magnums by the glass to savour. A rare treat to understand and ponder the way a wine shows different characteristics being aged and bottled under different conditions.
A gently immersive experience on the terrain from which the wine has come, the smells and the sights are even more alluring on a warm summer breeze.
No need for tickets, come up, park, get a glass and a bite, find a chair and chill...
Sun! Sun! Sun!
We are looking forward to a last (and possibly only?) hurrah of BBQ’s, picnics and chatting in scent-filled summer gardens and we’d love to be providing the refreshments!
We’re both sorry and delighted to say that, thanks to strong demand from the trade, the CLASSIC NV has sold out (though you can still get supplies from our retailers). But in its place can we point you in the direction of the 2016 vintage CLASSIC Early & Late-disgorged magnums? They have been delighting the THURSDAY LATES crowd…
“Reminiscent of delicately poached orchard fruits with a smooth, creamy palate and a savoury finish.
Bottles of our International Wine Challenge GOLD medal winner, the WHITE FROM BLACK 2020 have developed beautifully as the summer has progressed…
“Rose petal and blossom aromatics leads to a strawberry and rhubarb palate softened by cream with a vibrant acidity suggesting fresh brioche”
Or you could go for sparkling PINK NV followed by STILL PINK 2023 and finish with 2018 PINK in magnum… fill up because this might be the last of the summer wine!
The view from the vineyard...
We hope that you have enjoyed this weather more than our vines have! Samuel has somehow kept his tail up and the outlook for September is (at least at this moment in time) brighter, so positivity is the order of the day. Nevertheless, I’d give a lot for three weeks of sun between now and mid-October, when the chaos that is harvest begins - we shall see. Thankfully ‘22 and ‘23 were very good harvests so maybe we are due a poor one…
By the way, if any of you fancy getting your hands juicy at harvest, let us know and we’ll sort out some buckets and a pair of snips!
Running through September and into November, we have our regular vineyard tours on the dates on the website but, should you want to organise a bespoke tour, drop us a line.
The Slow Table – Imad’s Syrian Kitchen
Join us for a very special Slow Table.
On Thursday 5th September, we’re teaming up with The Slow Cyclist at the winery to host a celebration of Syrian culture and cuisine. The wonderful Imad Alarnab of Imad’s Syrian Kitchen will be cooking up a fantastic feast to be accompanied by our award-winning wines. And there’s even a chance to stay over and (slow) cycle through the Hampshire downs with us the following day.
All profits will go to Action Syria UK, a charity that offers vital healthcare and education to Syria and beyond.
This is going to be a really special evening and we hope you’ll join us.
When we met Oli Broom, the founder of The Slow Cyclist back in September last year, we knew we wanted to work with him. This is a man who, in 2009, jumped on a bike and just kept going - eventually stopping 412 days later in Australia! A commitment not dissimilar to starting a wine business in England…
Beyond the respect for each others’ businesses, we found plenty of common ground - we are both focussed on creating products and experiences that we would enjoy ourselves always under-pinned by exceptional quality and original innovative process. It was clear that we have also similar ideals and visions for the world we inhabit.
Over the past 6 months, we have discussed and developed the evening and we’re delighted to have Imad join us working together on supporting Action Syria. His is an exceptional story of resilience and humility in the face of great adversity. His courage and tenacity is staggering but it is his passion for food, family and community that made for a perfect fit for our collaboration.
Now the plans are all laid and we’re ready to go - all we need is for you and a few friends to come and fill the seats for this our very first winery dinner…
The Slow Cyclist offers extraordinary cycling and walking adventures for the culturally curious. They believe that travel is worth taking time over; that a great holiday means getting under the skin of a place, meeting its people, indulging in its culture and understanding its history and customs.
Having welcomed their first guests to Transylvania in 2015, The Slow Cyclist now takes guests to little-known corners of nine countries across Europe and Africa.
Imad Alarnab is a Syrian chef, entrepreneur and refugee who ran three successful restaurants, several juice bars and cafes in Damascus.
In the war, Imad's businesses were destroyed and he was forced to flee the country in search of safety. Making his way from Lebanon through Europe, Imad shared his skills cooking for other refugees, up to 400 at a time.
Imad arrived in London in 2015 and eventually his family was able to join him. Putting aside his passion for food, Imad worked a number of jobs, including as a car salesman in his early days in London. With the help of some good friends, Imad burst onto the London restaurant scene four years ago with a series of charity events which became hugely popular. Supper clubs sold out within hours and hungry workers waited patiently in long queues for take-away lunches at pop-ups.
Imad’s Syrian Kitchen opened in Kingly Court in Soho, London in early 2020 and has gone from strength to strength, allowing Imad to express his full vision.
https://www.imadssyriankitchen.co.uk/
Action Syria partners with local organisations in Syria and neighbouring countries to provide the support and aid that vulnerable communities need most and give you a way to help. They make sure funding gets directly to the right people quickly and safely.
They believe in giving Syrians a hand up, not a handout
They are currently teaching 200 Syrian refugee children, providing vital healthcare to a community of 50,000 people in north-east Syria, and delivering prosthetics to amputees in north-west Syria.
The Wine Widow – Water, water everywhere
“How are the vines?” I am asked by people with long faces. And then “how is your house?” This last question comes up in all wet weather because part of our house is less than 2 metres from a river and everybody assumes we will be flooded. To both these questions Zam smiles broadly and I try to sound as confident, “everything is fine, we’re on chalk.” As I type there are ominous sounds of branches breaking in the high winds – shallow rooted beech trees – because we’re on chalk. But while the roof may be in peril and the garden is pure moss, the floor is currently dry.
The vines, I’m told, are a week ahead of where they were this time last year. And so the inevitable Frost Question has raised its annual head. Zam plans to get a system that collects the rainwater off the winery roof which will be sprayed onto the vines during frosts which strangely keeps them safe. But not this year. For now it’s all alarm clocks and candles. One of last years Frost Warriors now lives abroad but has let it be known that he will fly back to England if he’s called up because he enjoyed lighting bougies at 3 a.m. so much. I am thinking about this remarkable enthusiasm when there is a knock at the door.
A man from Portsmouth Water is standing in the rain holding a long stick. He asks where the stop cock is which I happen to know because a different man from Portsmouth Water appeared in the rain at the door last week, holding a similar stick. This man also lifts the manhole cover and holds the stick to his ear and pulls a face. His “remote” system has told him that there is a leak somewhere. I suggest the tap that drips in the greenhouse but having seen this he dismisses it. “This sound” he offers me the stick to listen to “would imply a major internal leak.” His emphasis is a little alarming. And then he goes away because he can’t really tell while the dishwasher and washing machine are on. He will return on his night shift. I wander back into the house and stare at the floors. We’re on chalk. I’m sure it will be fine.
An Update FEBRUARY
Dear friends,
Well, even for February this has been a bit of a doozie… cold and dreary with plenty of added rain, enlivened only by the birthdays of those in possession of the best zodiac sign of all…
I have been marking the endlessly surprising arrival of the start of my seventh decade by taking each of my nippers out to dinner, one at a time, in a restaurant of my choosing. The Wine Widow is not a fan of restaurants, but I am and this cunning plan is giving me four bites at the succulent cherry that is London’s restaurant landscape. Seems mad not to make this an annual event?
In the vineyard the pruning is over, the pulling out is nearly done and the tying down is underway. This means we are approaching peak tidiness – the trellising empty, wires lowered, each vine a picture of dormant potential, canes demurely bowed, waiting for the warmth to raise the sap, swelling 8 to 10 buds on each cane into delicate, silvery leaf…we just have to pray it doesn’t start until after the last frost!
In the winery the blending is over and our teeth are recovering – tasting 30-odd highly acidic base wines really tests the enamel and we could all do with a visit to the dentist - but it will be worth a bit of pain because the wines were really revelatory… That wet mid-Summer followed by a baking early Autumn seems to have done something wonderful to the Chardonnay – the aromas we’re used to, of green apple, citrus and pear drops, have not been obliterated but they have been overlayed by scents of succulent peach, nectarine and apricot. Despite worries about dilution there is plenty of acidity to hold the wines together and Harry and Juan are very excited to see what these new flavours will turn into… in just 3 years’ time.
Yours,
Zam
