Grape varieties: Madeleine Angevine (62%), Kernling (38%)
Blended, filtered and bottled: 30 Mar 2015: clear, 400g 75cl Bordeaux bottles sealed with top quality traditional cork. Label FSC certified Tintoretto paper. 2677 bottles made.
Quality status: English Wine PDO - Protected Designation of Origin (Certificate ref: STPDO 11132)
Release Date: 24th May 2016
Awards:
Gold Medal: Independent English Wine Awards 2019. Judges comments: "Honeysuckle floral nose with touch of warm apple. Good acidity, nice mouth feel, nice finish - limes, citrus fruit with a touch of honey. Elegance and finesse".
Bronze Medal: Decanter World Wine Awards 2017. Citation "Well composed wine fruity with currents, freshness well balanced with a marriage of fruits and acidity."
Silver Medal: UKVA Wine of the Year Competition 2015. Citation: “Very pale green, clean, herby, good balance, long finish, warm ginger spice on nose, gingerbread/grapefruit on palate. Attractive.”
Grape source:
Oatley Vineyard, Cannington, Somerset. Vineyard parcels: Madeleine upper block, Madeleine lower block. Trained on 90 cm-high originally spur-pruned cordons, converted to double guyot 2015. Kernling upper block, double guyot on 90cm conventional trellis, Kernling lower block double guyot on 140cm single wires, hanging canes.
Growing Season :
An unusually cool year with some frost losses in the Madeleine. A dry spring after a mild winter brought an early budburst on 19th April, but then the last week of April brought night frosts, worst in the west of England. It was minus 2.8C at Oatley on 27th and we had a further frost when the shoots were well out on 13th May, losing about a third of the buds in the lowest lying corner of the Madeleine Angevine - 10% of the Madeleine potential crop. The cool, dry weather continued and flowering was lateish at the end of June.
A brief heatwave in the last week of June with day max > 30C set the flowers quickly but cooler weather set in before the fruit set was complete, leading to more-than-usual variation in ripeness, with the lowest part of the slope 10 days behind the top. The summer continued unusually cool and veraison was around 10 days late.
