SHEILA - 2022 CARBONIC MACERATION PINOT NOIR

This wine is named after my mom, Sheila.

Now, on October 18, 2022 I was pressing off grapes that had finished up their three weeks + one day carbonic maceration. It also happened to be my mom’s 60th birthday, and being so busy with harvest, I didn’t get a chance to send her flowers or a gift, so I told her I was making her a wine for her birthday. It sounded like a joke at the time, but I was serious! And the symbolism behind the wine and the label runs so much deeper than a bad-daughter-not-buying-a-birthday-present story.

My mom is my biggest role model, and we didn’t have it easy growing up. My parents got divorced when I was 11 and my dad had serious substance abuse issues. Most of my childhood I thought of my mom as a workaholic, but as an adult, I realise she was trying to provide the best life for my sisters and me that she possibly could.

She taught me my incredible work ethic, and that if I want to achieve a goal: to just go out and do it. She’s also the reason I fell in love with wine. My mom was by no means a wine snob or anything, we only had wine in the house a few times a year, usually for holidays or family gatherings. But the wines she did love had a lasting impact on me.

The imagery on this label is a Marc Chagall-inspired version of my favourite tarot card, the Nine of Pentacles. You might have noticed by now all of the labels are Marc Chagall inspired*

The Nine of Pentacles signifies abundance, luxury, self-sufficiency, and financial independence.

It shows a well-dressed woman wearing a flowing, golden robe, a sign of her wealth and status.

The vines behind her are heavy with grapes and coins, representing fruitful accomplishments. It’s about all of your hard work coming to … fruition.

It is important to note this is the only tarot card with grapes on it.

The idea that this woman, who’s worked incredibly hard towards her goals, and is about to, very literally, enjoy the fruits of her labour, is the perfect symbolism for my winery, this wine, and my mom. I wouldn’t be here without her.

The grapes for this wine came from Lamberhurst Vineyard in Kent. These are some of the oldest Pinot Noir vines planted in the UK, which most of the parcel dating back to the 1970s. 

These were the first grapes I received in 2022 on September 26th, the earliest I’ve pressed grapes in the UK since I’ve been here (2019 vintage). They were perfectly ripe for still wine, and I decided half of the tonne I received was to be dedicated to rosé. 

The area of the vineyard these grapes come from has a very warm microclimate, hence the perfect ripeness so early in the harvest schedule. The vineyard is located just east of the High Weald of Kent’s ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’, on the River Teise nestled between the ruins of Bayham Abbey and Scotney Castle. 

The soil here is mostly chalk, which provides the perfect condition to grow high-quality Pinot Noir.

The quality and ripeness of the Pinot Noir was stunning. 

The fruit was incredibly clean, with no rot or mildew, and the sugar was testing (to my surprise) at great still wine levels. 

I decided after the success of my 2021 Carbonic Maceration Chardonnay to try my hand at the same process, this time with really beautiful Pinot Noir. 

Lucky for me, I knew the ‘experiment’ I’d tried last year would work and had already pre-planned how I would do it again. 

So, with all the confidence of one harvest under my belt, my first decision in 2022 was to portion out most of the Pinot Noir grapes for carbonic maceration. The grapes underwent carbonic maceration for three weeks and one day, being pressed off on my mom’s 60th birthday, 18 October 2022. I jokingly told her I’d make her a wine for her birthday and then decided that I actually could. 

The pressed grapes had an incredibly deep colour, of dark inky plum, and the wine was juicy and vibrant but had a beautiful structure, so it was bottled unfined and unfiltered. Racked once in January 2023 and left on fine lees until the end of March, it’s evolved into a fresh and interesting take on English Pinot Noir.

This wine is a crowd-pleaser. With juicy freshness and soft tannins, it’s not something that has to be opened ahead of time or decanted, just rip the cork out, serve, swirl, and sip. 

The red fruits in this carry through some natural acidity from the cool climate, so you get flavours of dark cherry, raspberry, ripe strawberry, and a hint of floral which straddles a kind of rose and violet note. 

This is a low-alcohol red wine so it’s perfectly happy being served at room temperature or with a slight chill on it.

ABV: 9.5%

pH: 3.38

Free SO2: 0ppm

Total SO2: 6ppm

Residual Sugar: 0.07g/L

VA: 0.170g/L