 |
| John inspecting the vines |
Our nearest vineyard and winery to Tongham is Greyfriars on the Hogs Back near Guildford. We have visited them a couple of times over the years and were long overdue another visit. Since November 2010 it has been under new ownership so it was going to be interesting to see what their plans were. An open day on Saturday September 10th 2011 was an ideal opportunity to see. A few enthusiastic Tongham Tasters, John, Jane and Sheila got together and made the trip the few miles along the Hogs Back.
 |
| Bottles produced under the old owners |
A Little History
Two vets, Bill and Phil, planted the Greyfriars vineyard in 1989 because the planning permission for the land on which they had their vetinary centre required some agricultural use; after an abortive attempt at sheep farming, they settled on a vineyard. Being on a south facing chalk slope of the North Downs, it is a great spot for growing grapes. For Bill and Phil it was a sideline to their main business and the vineyard was very small and the winery very much of the “garage” type. As a hobby business it was quite successful and they had no problem selling about 4,000 bottles of their still and sparkling white wines to the local community each year. We had visited them a couple of times and bought some of their wines that could be very acceptable in a good year. They grew only Chardonnay and Pinot Noir Grapes and as well as trying to produce a champagne style sparkling wine they produced some interesting still wines including a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blend. After the 2006 vintage, no more still wine has been produced as the climate and economics favours the sparkling wine.
New Ownership
 |
| Mike explaining the riddling process |
In November 2010 Mike Wagstaff bought the vineyard and brought along David Line as his Vineyard Manager. Neither, has a history in the industry as Mike made his money in the oil and gas industry and David had his own rock band and later a wine bar. Brave men! Their ambition is to expand the vineyard and winery from its current hobby scale to become a small commercial vineyard producing quality English sparkling wine. They have already began expanding the vineyard and planting new vines. As well as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, they have added the classic champagne variety Pinot Meunier and also a little Pinot Gris. More expansion and planting is planned. Following this they will redevelop the winery so that they have better production and storage facilities. Their aim is to produce an English Sparkling wine that is more than just a Champagne copy and reflects English wine growing and style.
 |
| Greyfriars Pinot Noir |
The Open Day
 |
| The Old Vineyard |
Their open days are very popular, the new owner’s had their first in June this year, and there were a lot of people already visiting when we turned up at 11.30. We were taken on a very interesting tour of both the old and new vineyards by David the Vineyard Manager. It was a lovely time of year to visit as we could see well developed grapes ripening on their vines. We were impressed by how many new vines, something of the order of 12,600, had already been planted as part of their expansion. David was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable and gave us a great tour. All of the pictures on this blog post were pictures we took on the day.
 |
| Brand new tractor in front of the new plantings |
 |
| Some of the 12,600 new vines |
For the tour of the old micro-winery we were accompanied by the owner Mike who was also very enthusiastic, welcoming and knowledgeable. It will be interesting to come back in a few years time when they have redeveloped this part of the business. At present it is as it was under the old owners but some new equipment will start being delivered soon.
After this came the business of tasting and after a lovely welcome from Hilary we tasted two still white wines and three sparkling white wines. These were the wines produced under the old ownership and thus do not currently represent the true potential of the current team. However, they made for a very interesting tasting and we eventually bought three of their sparkling wines; my favourite being the 2004 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blend Sparkling wine at £17. Incidentally their still wines sell for about £6.50 and ther 2006 Sparkling for just £13.50.
I highly recommend you go up to one of their open days and follow their progress over the coming years. It will be interesting to taste some of their wines after they have redeveloped the winery. We wish Mike, Hilary, David and their team good luck and we will certainly visit them again. You can follow their progress and get the dates of their open days on www.greyfriarsvineyard.co.uk. They should be harvesting in early October.
 |
| Chardonnay ripening on the vine |
 |
| Pinot Noir Leaves and Grapes |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment