WINE

air! Keep your heap ventilated, turning it every now and again, and make sure you have a good mix of brown and green matter. Scrunched-up cardboard can help ensure the air circulates.

If space is tight, how about investing in a wormery? It’s a fast, efficient way to get great nutrients into the garden or on to the allotment. Visit the RHS website for more information. • Invest in a small shredder. We have a fair-sized garden and I’m also a florist, so I have lots of waste to shred and add to the compost heap, or use the woodier stuff to cover paths. It doesn’t just look good, it’s a great way to suppress weeds – and it means nothing goes to waste!

Be careful to avoid putting anything you suspect has been sprayed on the compost heap. We grow our own flowers here, or buy in from other growers who don’t use chemicals.

On that note, I’m a great believer in organic growing. If you build up a good little eco system in your garden or allotment, pests are mostly kept under control and you know you’re growing the healthiest food possible. Sometimes they get the better of you, but just move on and learn what does/doesn’t work. • Awonderfulwayto makeyour garden eco-friendlier is by growing flowers. Bees and insects love them – and anything we can do to help bees thrive is a good thing. It also encourages other beneficial insects into the garden, to eat up the pests that seem to do nothing but ruin all your hard work!

• Make safe places for wildlife. Hedgehogs are also on the decline, so make safe areas for them to live and ensure they can travel between properties via little walkways under fences. Leave wild areas of logs and leaves where they can forage for food – they’re great at eating slugs! Be mindful when lighting bonfires or strimming grass, and PLEASE don’t put down slug pellets or rat poison as these kill them. • Makeapond!Itdoesn’thaveto be huge. Just a washing-up bowl sunk into the ground with some pond plants, stones and logs for wildlife to hide in/ under will do. It also encourages more creatures into the garden to eat up those slugs… • Feedthebirds,evenduringthe warmer months – and don’t forget to provide water.

Those are just a few things you can do to help biodiversity in your own green space, whatever its size!

Kingscote Estate Into the Vines

By Katie Goodchild

Sometimes you experience things in life that make you stop in your tracks and take notice. Tasting Kingscote Estate’s 2013 Blanc de Noirs was one such experience for me.

Kingscote Estate is focused around a seven-year old barn you’d be forgiven for thinking is much older, as it’s partly constructed from an original 15th century tithe barn. It’s a vision of beauty. Outside, you’re welcomed by large church doors. Inside, 15th and 21st century oak blend together and an old converted milk cart at one end displays the goods to buy. At the other end, one can relax in leather chairs atop the mezzanine, enjoying a glass of wine and a charcuterie board.

48 During its short lifetime, Kingscote Estate has had two owners. Drawing inspiration from Nyetimber, 20,000 vines were planted in 2011. The first planting consisted of the three classic Champagne varietals: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. This was followed by a planting of Bacchus in 2012.

Kingscote Estate’s first harvest proved triumphant. They produced two wines, a still Chardonnay from the 2014 harvest and a Blanc de Noirs from 2013. Both were entered in the world-famous Decanter World Wine Awards and both emerged with awards.

Taking great wine to the world In 2017 Kingscote was bought by the Dixon family. Mark Dixon’s mission was to grow its humble, beautiful beginnings into something greater, to enable more people to enjoy the estate and its wines. 90,000 vines were planted in 2018 and they expect to build a new winery within the coming year to cope with the increasing demands of winemaking.

Cibare Magazine www.cibare.co.uk Wine production has grown from the two bottles entered in the DWWAs to four still wines, four sparkling wines and

a sparkling ‘cyder’. A healthy 120,000 bottles were produced in 2019 and they expect production to reach 250,000 bottles in 2021.

To prepare for the influx of grapes the team will pick and process in 2020, they’ve been buying in additional grapes from local growers. Choosing to work with growers from the start of the season has made the winery team as aware of activity in their growers’ vineyards as what happens in their own.

The vineyard and winery follow sustainable practices and practiced organic farming in 2019. Having to abide by specific restrictions in the vineyard is incredibly tough. They found they were spraying vines to protect them from damage, only for all their hard work to be washed away by the next bout of rain. A pattern which seemed to continue throughout the year.

All along, winemaker Andy Cooper has nurtured their original wines while introducing new styles. • BlancdeNoirs2013 A few cases of Blanc de Noirs 2013 still remain, which I thoroughly recommend you snap up. The sparkling wine, made entirely from Pinot Noir grapes, has undergone extended lees ageing, followed by further ageing in bottle. As a result, it has a wonderful complexity of flavours: expect brioche, butter, red plum and forest fruits. • Chardonnay A still Chardonnay, their other first, is wildly impressive. The nose offers nothing of that on the palate. The wine was fermented in stainless steel, yet protests to have been matured in oak, with rich notes of butter, pastry and peach. Tasting the wine, it resembles a young Chablis – crunchy green apples with hedgerow notes and a crisp acidity. • Bacchus There are two styles of Bacchus, a grape variety that has become England’s signature white grape. Both hail from the 2017 vintage. One has been fermented solely in stainless steel, resulting in a wine with zippy acidity and notes of lemon, gooseberry, elderflower and freshly-cut grass.

PICTURE CREDITS: Nic Crilly-Hargrave The other, Fat Fumé, has been aged for three months in oak barrels with the aim of producing a softer style of Bacchus. It is fuller-bodied with aromas reminiscent of peaches and cream, followed by buttery notes and a prominent but mellow acidity on the palate. • Sparkling Two Charmat style wines, a Brut and Rose, have been made from the 2018 harvest. Charmat is the winemaking process used in the production of Prosecco and, unlike the large majority of English sparkling wines or Champagne, it’s a lighter, refreshing style of sparkling wine designed to be drunk at a young age. Thanks to 2018’s glorious sunshine, the grapes were in abundance and picked with ample acidity and fruity notes – ideal for this style of winemaking. The Rosé Brut 2018 is made by a blend of Bacchus, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay and Regent. Fruit dominates. It’s a delight of red fruits – strawberries, cherry and raspberry.