Lock in diaries

Since our last post a couple of weeks back, the world we live in is unrecognisable. You all know that. We remain in awe of the brave people on the frontline, from medics to couriers to supermarket workers. We’re putting some plans together to show our support for them, more on that in a couple of weeks.

If you’re interested in the experience for a boutique English winery like us, we’re today sharing our observations. In some respects we’re very lucky - we don’t have any employees, so there are no salaries / furlough concerns to deal with. However this has hit us, majority of our bottles sold are to the trade. In Spring last year we gained significant momentum. We were thrilled to host wine critics and consumers at the winery, priviliged to be invited to run tastings, meeting a tonne of people to get the word out there about our small business. This spring, those chances to interact are gone - our winery tours are cancelled for the foreseeable and we can’t even see a friend, let alone a prospective customer, and our main sales channel is shut down. How this affects us will depend on how long that all lasts, and we’re working hard to try and adapt our business to survive in this environment. We’ve seen a brilliant amount of support in the past couple of weeks from consumers, which we’ve really appreciated.

The winemaking challenge: If you have visited us, or volunteered, you’ll know already how manual we are at Blackbook. We rely on the support of volunteers to help us at three key stages in the year - harvest, spring bottling and autumn bottling. We are really hopeful social distancing has been largely lifted by harvest or relaxed enough to enable us to welcome volunteers in to help us. Spring bottling however will certainly fall within this period. Thankfully we are well so Sergio can continue to work in the winery, adhering to all safety advice. Yet he may end up doing bottling alone…after a long day of looking after the kids?! The other risk is access to supplies and thankfully we ordered in bottles and corks some months ago so we’re ok for now, but will think about the impact for autumn bottling.

The small business challenge: This has been the fascinating piece to witness, we do not meet criteria for much of the government criteria as we are a supplier to the restaurant / retail bus and not directly there - we’re exploring and seeing how we can get help. We have been thrilled to see many of the companies we use to run our business, like Squarespace, iZettle, the FSB offering support and offers to help us pivot and get through. We’ve also loved the support of the wine community to highlight and promote small businesses that are open and selling, and we’ve been delighted to feature on lists from Jancis Robinson, and Abbie Moulton.

One great initiative next week is the Big English Wine Good Friday - rallied by a range of English Wine Producers and communicators. Check out the #bigenglishwinegoodfriday on instagram and twitter. We are doing a few new offers -

1. Lock in case - One of each of our 6 wines for £105

2. BIGENGLISH - Use “BIGENGLISH” discount code to receive 10% of any 12 bottle case order AND a spot on our first Virtual Winery Tour & Tasting on 18th April.

3. Shipping offers - We are doing 100% free local shipping in postcodes SW4 SW9 SW8 & SW11 and free shipping to mainland UK on 3+ bottle orders.

4. Gift cards - You can support us by now buying gift cards in our shop to give to a friend, these can be redeemed against anything bought in our online shop

Look forward to raising a glass together on Good Friday at 7pm, we’ll be live on instagram

Lynsey & Sergio xx

At least we have good wine…

The English micro-negoc project

Sergio’s article below recently published in Vineyard Magazine, June 2019 edition https://www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk/onlineissue/

Buying in grapes means not being tied down to a specific site.

In our beloved wine country, the old and new alike venture in search of the perfect vineyard across the Southern line. However as suitable land is becoming scarcer and land prices continue to climb, is planting the future for the UK wine industry? Well, perhaps not. Wines of Great Britain reports in 2019 a 24% increase in the overall land now under vine, with an estimated 3 million vines going in the ground this year alone. This brings the total hectarage up from 2,888 to just over 3,500 hectares. In 2018’s bumper harvest, capacity issues were seen where there was no remaining tank space for vintage demands. While this anomaly maybe due to the perfect storm of 2018, it could become more of a common occurrence in future years, due to climate change and more established vineyards coming online. As the market for grapes continues to mature, and grow, it is logical that more producers may opt, as we have at Blackbook, to bypass the decision to plant and instead focus on developing relationships with trusted growers to source our fruit. For decades, even centuries, wineries around the world have adapted to changing conditions through the ability to purchase fruit from different sites, some locally and others further afi eld to make their wine. Those whose production is from 100% purchased fruit can be described as a négociant – a winery who buys grapes, or grape juice, from others and sells the wine under their own name. In recent years many have preferred to use this model; often the younger generations marked as New Wavers. No better example can be seen than in South Africa, where a group of likeminded individuals are seeking forgotten vineyards and varieties lost in the fog of Chenin blanc, Pinotage and Chardonnay. Take for example, Blankbottle, Craven Wines and Savage Wines. Beyond the romance of the New Wavers, a good example is Burgundy as an epi-centre for micro-negoc due to the prohibitive cost of land - vineyards can cost upwards of millions for a sliver of a 1er cru or Grand Cru plot; Le Grappin is a key example known well to the UK market. While both arable land and established vineyards in the UK are nowhere near the infl ated prices of Burgundy and its neighbours, a commercial planting could set you back between £15-25K per acre for land and planting. But it is not just the establishment. There is the yearly running cost of anywhere between £5-10K per acre, plus the 3-4 year waiting time. The initial outlay and waiting, ultimately ends up with at least a 10-year timeline to see any return. Dreams of transplanting the south of France to the sunny hills of the English countryside could end in tears. For us, grape purchasing may be the answer. As well as offering a more accessible route to starting a label, grape purchasing enables the producer to source a diverse selection of varieties, adjust the mix over time according to desire and demand, and shift the production size up and down. As a producer, grape-buying means not being tied down to a specifi c site. I am able to source fruit from Sussex, Kent, Essex and beyond, highlighting the immensely diverse micro climates within each of those sites. In some cases, fi nding lost plots and working to revitalise them. As a micro-negoc, there is no need to wait four years (for still wine, sparkling is an eternity of a wait!) before seeing a return on one’s investment. Conceptually, wine is being sold earlier therefore income is received earlier. The earlier returns lead to a reduced time towards profi tability making the whole project more viable for a start-up. There is a third scenario here. The option to lease vineyards. I believe this could be a good alternative for the control freaks out there (I include myself in this grouping). The capital outlay is much lower than planting, but the direction of the vineyard is under direction by Leasee who rents the site, as is the cost of maintaining the site. This is a good alternative, but I feel the same can be achieved with the right grower relationship. As the UK rises through the ranks of growth, would more businesses want to be a négociant? At the moment, in the current state of affairs, I would say yes. As years continue, vines are coming of age, more fruit is hitting the open market and by extension more wine. My question is where will it all go?

The first London grown, London made wine

As many people are aware, harvest 2018 was the biggest seen to date in England and Wales. The hot and dry summer resulted in greater yields than we’d seen and more fruit than many wineries had space to accommodate. We felt really fortunate that when Forty Hall Vineyard, in North London, had been advised that there was not enough tank space to accommodate all of their fruit, they knocked on our door.

Grapes from Forty Hall soon after they arrived at the winery, Sept 2018

We’ve been long admirers of Forty Hall - a vineyard in London, socially-minded, not-for-profit and organically certified to boot!  Being certified organic, Forty Hall avoids the use of synthetic fungicides, herbicides or fertilisers to encourage sustainability, biodiversity and natural balance. In 2018 there were 65 registered volunteers and 6400 volunteer hours logged. They produced nearly 20 tonnes of grapes in 2018 and we were lucky enough to secure just over 1 tonne of their bacchus. Forty Hall’s own award winning wines are vinified in Sussex, so when they offered to sell us grapes we were excited to consider that it would be the first end to end London wine.

The bacchus was picked and sent down to us at the end of September 2018. When the grapes arrived they were beautiful, and great ripeness. They went straight into the press and we split the juice between older French oak barrels and steel tank, where they fermented using natural yeasts. This was followed by naturally occurring malolactic fermentation and aged for 6 months on gross lees. We do not fine or filter, the wine was bottled in April 2019 and has just officially launched.

Lisa and Emma from Forty Hall, with Sergio and Matt Frame

We named the wine, Tamesis. Named after the Latin word for the River Thames, which is a stone’s throw from the winery, the label for Tamesis was designed by local London artist, Matthew R. Frame, who took inspiration from the river, and the Roman origins of wine in England.   The label references 3 key symbols: the component parts of the Thyrsus, a staff wielded by Roman God of wine, comprised of a fennel plant tipped with a pine cone, wound in vine leaves and ivy and dripping with honey; the Battersea Shield, discovered in 1857 during excavations for the Chelsea Bridge and is believed to date back to 1st century BC; and the bee wing that is the main focus of the label is both a reference to the honey laden Thyrsus and the army of volunteers at Forty Hall.

A wine that truly expresses the varietal essence with nuances of elderflower, white peach, and white pepper with touches of sweet spices and tropical fruit.

At Blackbook we are proud of our London heritage and passionate about the city. We strive to demonstrate that world class wine can be produced in an urban winery and believe that Tamesis is a perfect example of that.

Available now in our online shop.