Tempting as it is to hunker down in the tasting room and watch the weather, winemaking is a year round job. It’s been a busy January so far for the winemaking and vineyard teams at Langham Wine Estate.
In the winery, their 2022 wines are resting in tanks and barrels before they blend them later in the year. Meanwhile, the team are disgorging bottles of their Corallian and Culver Classic Cuvee, ready to be sold in a few month’s time. These wines have finished their period of ageing on the lees – the sediment of yeast cells that have finished putting the sparkle into their award winning wines, while contributing subtly bready flavours.
At this point they remove the sediment, which emulates the process ‘a la volée’, quickly turning the bottle to allow the pressure inside to expel the yeast, previously riddled towards the neck of the bottle.
In the vineyard, the pruning team have seen all the faces of winter weather, from torrential downpours to heavy snow to hard frosts. Every winter, they cut away the majority of last year’s growth while the vine is dormant. One cane is left on each side of the vine’s head, which will provide the buds for this year’s growth. Restricting the number of buds helps the vine to produce fewer, but hopefully more ripe bunches of fruit, and keeps the plant manageable through the growing season.
Rosé NV
If you need a reminder that warmer months are ahead, Langham’s non-vintage sparkling rosé is tasting superb at the moment. With bottle age, it is developing beautiful aromas of dried sour cherry, rhubarb and rose petal, with a bright pink grapefruit character on the palate.
The pruning team was joined last week by Donald Edwards, Head Sommelier at La Trompette in Chiswick, London, who Lanham are proud to say “pours our wines by the glass, and suggests our rosé with steak tartare, or even cold roast beef”.
Bon Appetit!
Buy Rosé NV online here.