Laura Robinson Laura and Sam Robinson of Burn Valley Vineyard in North Norfolk are looking forward to bottling the 2022 vintage, and were thrilled to have had their Pinot Noir featured on ITV’s Love your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh.
At Burn Valley, the winter has flown by. Most days, we have been in the vineyard completing the prune, a mammoth task that has to be done by hand. While we have electric secateurs, that make the job a little easier, each vine needs to be carefully trimmed and then all the dead wood pulled out onto the ground.
After the prunings were mulched up, it was down to the job of tying down the canes onto the fruiting wire for the coming season. Simultaneously, the 2022 wines, all of which are in tank or barrel, need to be monitored daily and tasted – yes, it’s a hard job but someone has to check them! This is all part of our process to decide whether the wines are going to be blended or if we will keep them as single varietals.
The wines are all chill stabilised, and the next step will be to fine and filter them. This year, we are using a plant-based fining agent in order to accommodate our vegan customers.
We have also taken delivery of our bottles, the cost of which has flown up – as with everything else! We still have some bottles left from last year, but we will need a lot more for this coming vintage, which we are extremely excited about. Because of last year’s long, very warm summer, we have some very interesting wines to share with you all. Our Marsh White is slightly different this year but still delicious, the Pinot Rose will be very popular, and we believe the Bacchus is our best yet.
It was lovely that ITV’s flagship Sunday morning programme, Love your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh, featured our 2021 Pinot Noir as the only red wine recommendation for their Valentine’s Day drinks feature. Alan and his guests, actresses, Amanda Abbington and Claudie Blakley, seemed to really enjoy the wine, and it was great to have a Norfolk wine shared across the nation!
Looking further ahead, we have some dates for the diary, including our upcoming steak nights and secret supper dates which are back; by popular demand, they will be in the marquee adjacent to the winery! We are still hosting our winter wine tastings and are looking forward to the first tastings that will share the new vintage with you all. See our website for full details.
One definite date for your diary is our summer party on 19 August. It is always good fun, with live jazz music, good food, and, of course, our wines! Book a taxi and put the date in your diary; tickets will be available to buy shortly.
Finally, with the farmers’ markets starting up again, we look forward to seeing you out and about. Do come and say hello – and enjoy a taste of our Burn Valley Vineyard wines, too!
Visit Burnvalleyvineyard.co.uk
