OATLEY VINEYARD Wine Information Sheet:            Leonora’s 2014

 

Oatley Leonora’s 2014

Grape variety:  Kernling (100%)


Quality status:  English Wine - Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) (Ref: STPDO 10928)


Grape source:  Oatley Vineyard, Cannington, Somerset. Kernling upper block, vines planted 1986, cane-pruned on  90cm-high wires, vertical-shoot-positioned. and Kernling lower block, also planted 1986,  cane-pruned on 150 cm wires, hanging canes.


Awards

Silver Medal UKVA Wine of the Year Competition Jul 2016. Citation:  Clean, positive, shiny fruit, fresh fruit character, pleasant, good acid lift on finish”


Bronze medal Decanter World Wine Awards 2016. Citation: “Fragrant and floral wine, bright and clean with a hint of marzipan on the nose, lots or easy lemon fruit and subtle tropical flavours.


Growing Season:   An exceptionally good growing year for grapes in England led to the sobriquet “The English Vintage of Dreams”. Warm spring after a mild but very wet  and stormy winter with famous floods in Somerset. No spring frost. A lot of flower but early bunch stem necrosis reduced the fruit set on the first clusters of the Madeleine Angevine - a commonly reported problem that year. This affected the yield but not the final quality. June and July were hot and  mostly dry, setting the fruit well, Aug cooler with some showery spells, enough rain to swell the fruit, September very warm and dry to ripen the fruit, October benign. A ferocious pheasant attack in the last week took about 10% of the crop despite perimeter netting and regular chasing out with Milo-the-Collie.


Harvest:  26th Oct 2014. (pictured above, blogpost about the day here>>) Cloudy buy dry and reasonably warm (15C). Grapes, pictured in the winery hopper top right, with good phenolic ripeness and in very good condition.


Vinifcation:    Winemaker: Steve Brooksbank, near Shepton Mallet, Som BA4 6SX. Crushing/pressing 27th Oct 2014. Free-run juice: sugar 74 Oechsle, acid 12 g/l. Vinified in stainless steel tanks. Bottled 2 Apr 2015 in lighter weight (410g) “autumn leaf” 400g 75cl Burgundy bottles sealed with high quality traditional cork. 2404 bottles made. Labelled with FSC certified Tintoretto paper.


Release Date:   25 May 2016         

Analysis


  1. Alcohol 11.10 %

  2. Total acidity 7.3 g/l

  3. pH 3.20

  4. Sugar 1.7 g/l

  5. Total dry extract 19.6 g/l

  6. Free sulphur dioxide 30 mg/l

  7. Total sulphur dioxide 107 mg/l

  8. Copper 0.31 mg/l

  9. Iron 0.6 mg/l

  10. Yeasts, bacteria, moulds: nil

  11. protein stability: stable

  12. chill stability: stable


Independent post-bottling analysis 23 Apr 2015 by BRI Corkwise Ltd, Coopers Hill Rd, Nutfield, Surrey RH1 4HY