Alive, Alive, Oh!

Alive, Alive, Dead, Missing...

No we haven’t started performing sea shanties or checking in on guests! Instead we have been out counting the vines.

One of the consequences of the vines having been abandoned for a number of years, is that they became susceptible to disease and frost. Most recently, in 2023 a heavy frost took its’ toll on the vines.

So as part of the vineyard restoration programme, Helen and Jill, her best friend from when they were kids, went out to do a count of the white grape vines on the hillside. This is a combination of Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Gris, core stock for our future wine plans.

To the sounds of ♪♪ alive, alive, dead, missing ♪♪ clickers in hand, up and down 75 rows, the tally was made, and the scale of the challenge became apparent.

Removing the dead vines, replacing these and the missing will be important for us to improve the yield per linear metre and hectare, in order for us to ultimately make machine harvesting (and indeed winemaking more broadly) economic, and increase the quantity and varieties of wine we can produce.

As it will take 3 or so years to start getting grapes from new plants, we want to get new plants in as soon as possible, and will be starting the replanting programme in early 2026.

In the meantime, we only have another 8 hectares to count now. So we are off to alive, alive, oh! Jill can you come back please?

And if you wanted to know - we have lost 40% of the vines on these parcelles, so only around 3,000 to replace!