three-choirs-vineyard

Meet the varietals at Three Choirs Vineyard

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 10:01:49 GMT

A varietal is a wine made completely or predominantly from a single grape variety. The word varietal is used uniquely for wine.

There are a huge number of grape varieties grown all over the world, with some only grown in certain areas – from the northern hemisphere in Canada through to the sunshine of California, the temperate climate of Germany or the traditional wine making regions of France and Italy, down to the southern hemisphere and Australia and New Zealand.

When the wine industry in the UK began, vineyards like Three Choirs Vineyard started out with German grape varieties, because we share a similar climate. These varieties include Schonburger, Reichensteiner and Siegerrebe, which have all grown successfully in England.

Thomas Shaw, managing director of Three Choirs Vineyard, said: “The problem with German grape varieties is that German wine had a bad reputation. Things like Liebfraumilch and Black Tower were pretty poor quality wines. The Germans did produce some good wine, but they never exported it!”

Over the years, the English wine industry has moved away from German varieties to trying to grow more traditional grape varieties like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These are seen as more desirable than a lot of the German varieties, but will grow in slightly cooler climates like ours.

Thomas continued: “That’s where the English wine industry is now. A lot of what is produced in England is sparkling and is made from traditional French grape varieties and in the traditional French style.”

Here at Three Choirs Vineyard, we currently grow Seyval Blanc – a hybrid which has been designed to grow in cooler climates and to be relatively disease resistant. We’ve also got Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and some of the old German varieties like Schonburger and Reichensteiner.

The vineyard has been on a rolling replacement programme over the last 10 years. We have 75 acres of vines and over the last decade we have replaced 50 acres of vines – mainly replacing German varieties with traditional grapes.

In recent years, there has been a big push, particularly from the New World (countries like USA and Australia) to produce wines from one grape variety like Chardonnay or Pinot Noir. But the classic way of making wine in Europe (the Old World) was to have blends of two or three grape varieties to create your wine.

At Three Choirs, we make both single variety wines and blended wines. And visitors to the vineyard can try both.

Contrary to the view of many, Thomas believes the best wines in the world today are blended wines.

He concluded: “All the grape varieties have different characteristics, which will vary from year to year depending on growing conditions of that year. If you’re making a single variety Chardonnay and it’s not a very good year, you’re not going to make a good wine.

“That’s the beauty of the blend – if it’s not a good year for one, it will probably be a good year for another, so you can tweak your recipe.”

Spring in the vineyard: New growth, new promise

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 11:05:00 GMT

Spring in the vineyard here at Three Choirs Vineyard is an exciting time of year, as we look forward to the bud burst on the vines.

It is a relatively quiet season on the vineyard. All the work of the winter has been completed. The pruning must be finished before the vines start to show signs of life, and everything around the vines is tidy, to help reduce disease later in the year.

As we move into spring, we hope the pollinators, like bees and insects, have wintered well and will be ready to start their work pollinating around the vineyard.

Bud burst can happen any time from mid-April to mid-May and is the time when the vines, which have been dormant through the winter, first begin to produce new shoots. These shoots will become leaves or flowers.

During the bud burst phase, the vines are quite susceptible to frost damage.

Thomas Shaw, managing director of Three Choirs Vineyard, said: “It’s lovely to see the trees coming into bud in early spring, but we don’t want the vines to be doing that in March.

“We don’t like spring to be too early, because we worry about the vines coming into bud and then being damaged by a late frost.

“We prefer cold, sunny, dry winters to keep the vines dormant until the risk of frost has passed.”

The bud burst is gradual, because all varieties of grape are different. Some varieties come into bud earlier than others, while some are more resistant if there is a late frost.

As the buds burst and the leaves start to appear, that’s when we will get a hint of what we might expect in the harvest. The number of buds will indicate the number of potential fruit at harvest.

With the excitement of the summer yet to start, spring at Three Choirs is a time to reflect on the beauty of the vineyard.

Thomas concluded: “For me, spring is the time I like the most. It is the prettiest time of year. The vines are neat and tidy and there is a little ribbon of bright green new growth across the vineyard from the end of April and into May.

“You see it all, full of new hope. Let’s hope it looks like it’s going to be another good year, with everything growing beautifully!”

As the vineyard awakens for another promising season, spring is the perfect moment to experience its beauty firsthand. Why not join us for a relaxing break in one of our Vineyard Lodges and see the bud burst for yourself, or settle into our brasserie for a delicious Sunday roast while enjoying the beautiful views across the vineyard under the gentle warmth of the spring sunshine.

We’d love to welcome you - come and enjoy the season with us.

What happens in the vineyard over winter?

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 12:00:21 GMT

People often assume a vineyard is dormant in winter, but here at Three Choirs Vineyard it’s actually the beginning of the year and a very important time.

Starting in December, we begin pruning in the vineyard, getting the vines ready for the coming year’s harvest. If we don’t prune well, the vines will be susceptible to disease and poor quality fruit.

Thomas Shaw, managing director of Three Choirs Vineyard, said: “The winter is one of the busiest times of the year, with the hardest work getting through the vineyard, doing all the pruning.”

We have three to four people pruning throughout the winter. It’s a very skilled job and very hard work on the hands. Our team are working all day and cutting through some really tough bits of stem.

Thomas continued: “If they don’t prune correctly, we could lose the potential crop for the next year. They also have to be very neat and tidy.”

We keep the area around the vines as clean and tidy as we can. It’s very important when doing pruning that we take away all the old dead wood and leaves and burn them.

Disease is a problem for all sectors of agriculture and vineyards are no different. Dead wood and old leaves lying around make disease more likely, so cleanliness and tidiness are essential in a vineyard.

Thomas said: “On a beautiful winter’s day, it’s fantastic working out there. And in the rain, it’s horrid!

“We like really cold winters, as they help to harden the new wood. This is the wood which grew last year and will produce the fruit this year. Cold weather also kills disease, but we rarely get cold winters now.”

The new buds start forming on the vines in April or sometimes even March. The first sign that the new buds are on the way is that the sap will start to rise in the vine. If the vine hasn’t had time to repair from the cut when it was pruned, sap will be visible bleeding from the cut, which weakens the vine.

So, it is important that we get the pruning done early enough to give the vines time to heal from their wounds.

If you pass a vineyard in winter and it looks very quiet and very dead, nothing could be further from the truth! It is simply getting ready for what will hopefully be another good quality growing season and harvest.

2025: A great vintage and first release

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 10:27:35 GMT

2025 has been a really good year for Three Choirs Vineyard. The weather was ideal for vines, with higher summer temperatures and a long growing season leading to an excellent harvest.

Martin Fowke, our winemaker, said: “The grapes came in with fantastic sugar levels. Fermentation has gone really well. We’ve got some very good wines in the tanks in the winery.”

We’ve got about twice as much wine in tank this year than we did at this time last year. Normally a very good quality crop can’t be too big. But this year we’ve been able to produce good quality grapes and a very good quantity of wine.

To celebrate a good vintage, here at Three Choirs Vineyard we like to bottle something up early. This is called our first release. The 2025 first release is one of the first English wines to be available from this vintage, if not the very first.

Our first release is a dry white wine with a good fruity character, which would go very well with a Christmas turkey. Although most bottles have already been snapped up by enthusiastic wine drinkers!

To create a good balance, the first release is a blend in roughly equal parts of four different varieties of grape – Solaris, Siegerrebe, Madeleine angevine and Phoenix.

Martin continued: “The different varieties bring different things to the wine. We’re really pleased with it. It just sets the scene of what’s to come for the 2025 vintage.”

We have already started bottling some of our other wines. These will spend some time in the bottle before they’re released. But the good news is, there will be quite a few new wines being released ready to buy in the spring.

We don’t just make our own wines here. We make wines for other vineyards too. This year, the winery has already won more than 50 awards. With the quality of the wine we’ve got in tank at the moment, we’re hopeful of even more awards for the 2025 vintage.

But it’s not all good news. All this optimism is set against the backdrop of a difficult year with the economy, duty going up and increased costs. So even this good year hasn’t been without its challenges. But people are looking for the best possible quality wines and that’s what we offer and what is standing us in good stead.

Martin concluded: “The predictions are that we should expect more of these warm, dry summers in the future. It’s a good time to be producing English wine!”

Choosing your wine for Christmas

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 11:54:32 GMT

With the festive season just around the corner, thoughts turn to Christmas dinner, parties and celebrations. And whether you’re getting the party started or relaxing in front of the TV on Christmas Day evening, you may want to enjoy the festivities with a glass or two of wine.

But how do you choose your wine for Christmas?

Well the good news is, while you might want to splash out and choose something a bit more special than your usual tipple, there are no rights and wrongs when choosing wine for Christmas.

Thomas Shaw, managing director of Three Choirs Vineyard, said: “Don’t feel as though there are any rules to follow. The most important thing is to drink what you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy red wine, don’t drink red wine, drink white instead!”

Some people like to enjoy sparkling wine on Christmas Day. When it comes to sparkling wine, people tend to fall into two camps – those who love it and will drink it on every occasion and those who really don’t like it!

If you’re someone who isn’t keen on sparkling wine, but you’ve got guests coming round who might enjoy a glass of something fizzy before Christmas dinner, there are a range of options.

Thomas continued: “There’s no need to go crazy and buy something expensive. There is a big range of prices from Cava and Prosecco up to top of the range Champagne, so you can spend as much or little as you want.

“If you’re going to mix it with orange juice for buck’s fizz, definitely buy something cheaper!”

While it’s not usual to have sparkling wine with your Christmas dinner, if you or your guess fancy some fizz with your turkey, just go for it!

Alternatively, you might want to enjoy a refreshing white wine at lunchtime, then move to drinking red wine in the evening. Red wine is served warmer and feels like something to be enjoyed when you’re wrapped up warm in front of the fire.

But there are no rules that say you have to move from white to red if you don’t want to and there are no rules which tell you exactly when you should make that change. Just do what feels right for you and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks!

Whether you’re looking for red, white or sparkling for Christmas, if you want some advice and good value for money, go to a local independent wine retailer. They know all the wines on their shelves and should be able to help you choose something which is just right for you, your family and friends. Don’t be scared to ask for help!

Most people will know the names of some popular wines, but won’t know, for example, whether a particular year was a good year. Asking someone who knows wines can be a real help when you are faced with so much choice.

In the run-up to Christmas, local wine merchants and vineyards will sometimes hold evenings where you can go along and taste some wines to help you choose.

It’s true that the price of a bottle of wine does generally reflect its quality, so when you go to a wine merchant, have a realistic budget in mind and try to stick to it! Unfortunately, wine has got more expensive in recent years, due to poor harvests in Europe, as well as inflation and the rising costs of energy and labour.

Because the Christmas period is more than just one day, if you’re interested in trying new wines and finding out more about them, it is a great opportunity to learn more about what you like.

Thomas said: “If you buy several different wines and taste them over a few days over Christmas, hopefully you will really like one or two of them. Having a variety over a short period of time means you’re less likely to forget what you like and what you were less keen on. And it’s good fun!”

Could there be a better way to choose your wine for Christmas?

After the harvest…

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 12:22:44 GMT

After the earliest harvest on record, brought about by the warm summer, the last grapes of 2025 were picked here at Three Choirs Vineyard on 9th October.

The harvest is the biggest and most important event every year on the vineyard calendar. And the key thing for us is the quality of fruit, rather than the quantity.

Thomas Shaw, managing director of Three Choirs Vineyard, said: “If we have a lot of fruit, we generally don’t get such good quality. This year we’ve got very good quality grapes!

“It’s not such a good year for making sparkling wines because the acidity in the grapes was low due to the high temperatures, but 2025 is an excellent year for making still wines.”

Now the grapes have all been picked and pressed, they are in tanks in the winery and fermentation is taking place.

By the end of November or early December, fermentation should be complete, and the winemakers will start to taste the individual tanks and decide how that wine is going to be used – whether it is going to be a blend or a single variety. Those decisions will be made before Christmas this year, rather than afterwards, as is often the case.

But how do they make that decision?

Thomas continued: “A lot will be to do with the flavour. The winemakers taste the juice and decide if it’s got the right characteristics for a single variety.”

It is a myth that single variety wines are the ‘best’.

Thomas said: “Some of the highest quality wines in the world are blends. Bordeaux wines are seen as the best and they are all blends. Blending creates a consistency in style.

“Some people think a single variety is the best. But it’s actually a modern, new world thing to have a single variety.

“There are no right and wrong answers. The best wine is the one the drinker thinks is the best. And a bad wine is one that is faulty and badly made, not one you don’t like!”

Once we’ve made the decision on whether the wine will be a blend or single variety – is it better for it to stay in the tank, and mature and age in there? If the wine stays in the tank, we know the whole tank will have a consistent taste. #

When we put the wine in the bottle and seal it, the wine will continue to evolve in the bottle, as each bottle is its own little microcosm.

Opinions differ on the best time to transfer wine from the tank to the bottle, but Thomas believes in leaving it in the tank for as long as possible.

He said: “Others would say it’s better to bottle it as soon as the wine is what you want it to be. There are pros and cons to each. There are so many ways of doing it and very few real rights and wrongs in winemaking.”

The very first wines will start to go into the bottle in April or May next year. They may not be ready for sale at that point, but winemaking is an all-year-round activity, and we need to empty our tanks before the next harvest.

After the harvest, we all do what we think is best for our vineyard and our wine. When you open a bottle of Three Choirs Vineyard wine, we hope you agree we’ve made all the right decisions!

2025: Our earliest harvest ever

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 08:51:11 GMT

Last month, we told you all about our plans and hopes for harvest at Three Choirs Vineyard. Now, a few weeks on, we can tell you all about how successful it was.

Harvest 2025 was the earliest harvest on record for us, after a very dry and consistently warm summer. We started picking two weeks earlier than usual and will finish picking three weeks earlier, at the start of October. Some years, when we’ve had a very late harvest, it has lasted almost until December.

But this year has been a fast and furious harvest!

We’ve had a bit of rain during September. This can prove problematic during harvest, but we’re pleased to say it was nothing disruptive this year. In fact, the weather has stayed perfect through to the end of September, to keep the grapes in good condition.

The positive news is that it wasn’t just an early harvest – it was a good one, with very high quality grapes. The 2025 wines which will start to come out in the middle of next year should reflect that.

Thomas Shaw, managing director of Three Choirs Vineyard, said: “The sugars are good this year. We look for the sugar levels in the grapes, because the sugar turns to alcohol.

“Acidity matters too. If you don’t get that, the wine isn’t very pleasant to drink! The acidity is what gives the wine its freshness.”

In warmer climates, the grapes don’t have as much acidity, so winemakers are allowed to add it to the wine, but that isn’t something we need to do in the UK.

Sometimes people talk about a ‘bumper harvest’ as if that is a good thing. 2025 hasn’t been a bumper harvest, the quantities have been what we would expect and hope for every year.

Thomas continued: “If you get good quality grapes, you don’t get huge quantity. A good year for quality won’t ever be record quantities. For us, it’s the quality of the grapes which matters. Making millions of bottles of wine isn’t a good thing. We would choose quality over quantity every time.”

As well as producing our own wine, we have dozens of contract customers. These other vineyards bring us their grapes and we do the pressing and fermentation for them. They tell us they are experiencing the same as us – their crops are early and good quality. So, 2025 is going to be a good year for British wines across the board, not just for Three Choirs Vineyard!

Thomas concluded: “Now is the busy time for the winery. We’ve got the fermentation to start, which will take six to eight weeks. Hopefully it will all be finished well before Christmas this year. This is what winemakers live for. This is the time of year that gets us truly excited.”

When is the right time to pick the grapes?

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 10:57:00 GMT

As August draws to an end, the team at Three Choirs Vineyard are gearing up ready for our harvest. But when is the right time to pick the grapes?

We don’t have a definite set date for the annual harvest; it all depends on the weather. This year, it looks likely to start a bit early – probably in the first week of September - because of all the good weather we’ve had this summer. That is about 10 days to two weeks earlier than usual.

As the climate is changing, the trend is towards picking earlier than we used to. But the harvest still takes the same amount of time. Generally, we would expect the harvest to last for about 10 weeks, but this will depend on what the weather is like and the quantity and quality of grapes on our vines.

Here at Three Choirs, we have 14 different varieties of grapes, and they all ripen at slightly different times. The first grape we will pick is Siegerrebe, which is a pinky orange colour when ripe. Siegerrebe makes a white wine, because, as with most grapes, all the colour is in the skin and not the juice inside.

Siegerrebe takes 76 days from flowering until the fruit is ready to pick. The timing really is as specific as that! All of the grape varieties have precise timings, although some of them are longer than others.

Thomas Shaw, managing director, said: “It’s been a good year, with lots of sunshine. The grapes are fairly small, but that means they should have a nice concentration of flavours and sugars, which is what we need. We don’t need big fat grapes like you get in the supermarket, because they’re full of water.”

It hasn’t just been a warm, sunny year, it has been a very dry one too. Will that affect our harvest?

Thomas continued: “There was a lot of moisture in the ground early in the year. The roots of our vines go down 12 to 15 foot, so there is still enough moisture down there for them.

“Grapes are different from other crops. Some farmers have been struggling this year because their crops have very small roots, and the ground is far too dry for them.”

Picking is all done by hand. Fruit is picked and pressed on the same day.

Thomas said: “To maximise the quality, we don’t pick when it’s rainy. If it’s raining, we can get a lot of wet fruit into the winery, which dilutes the wine.”

So here’s hoping for a dry harvest!

Early indications are that 2025 will be a successful year for grapes at Three Choirs. Flowering in late June and early July is a key time for our harvest, and the weather was just what we needed at that time.

September and October will be the final decider if 2025 is a good quality year for our wines.

The art of wine tasting: Tips for beginners

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 09:55:59 GMT

Are you nervous about wine tasting? Do you think you need some special skills? Maybe you think it’s not for people like you?

Don’t worry! If you want to give it a go, wine tasting is for everyone and there are no rights and wrongs.

Thomas Shaw, managing director of Three Choirs Vineyard, assures us that we are not supposed to like every wine we taste.

He said: “When you first start drinking wine, it can taste quite odd. It takes time to learn what you like, what flavours you like, what style you like. For some people, it can take quite a few years before they actually enjoy drinking wine.

“Don’t be put off by people saying ‘you’ll love this’ and you don’t, because it’s very personal. What you enjoy is what you enjoy. It’s just like food; we all have different tastes.

“If you don’t like a wine, it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just not the wine for you. Like a pair of trainers, they might not be your style just because everyone else wearing them.”

He advises that the best way to start is by trying as many different wines as you can. That way, you can start to find what you like and what you don’t like.

Thomas said: “If you’re interested in wine and what to learn about it, try as many as you can and you will slowly start building up a library in your mind of what you do and don’t like.

“Listen to yourself and what your body tells you about a wine. Keep trying and don’t just stick to one. You will probably find that you enjoy different types of wine at different times of year. Even between lunchtime and evening, wines will seem different.”

Although there are no rules about what you should like, Thomas can usually predict what people will enjoy at first.

He said: “Generally in my experience, people start off liking sweeter wines and that’s fine. If that’s what you enjoy, that’s what you should drink.

“Don’t be put off by the snobs who say you shouldn’t drink sweet wine. There’s a place for everything.”

He added that, as people get older, their tastes change, and most people will start to find themselves enjoying drier wines.

“What you like today might not be what you like in five or 10 years. People’s tastes always change. As they become elderly, many people go back to sweeter wines.”

We’ve all seen people sniffing wine and swishing it around the glass. Is there a reason for that or are they do just do it to look knowledgeable?

Thomas said: “Do smell the wine first. Swill it round in the grass and sniff it. An amazing amount of taste comes through the sense of smell. At first it will just smell like wine, but then you might start to smell other things like cherries or sandalwood.

“What you smell is entirely up to you and it is what’s right for you.”

So that is the basics of wine tasting. It really is no more complicated than to just keep trying different varieties until you learn what you like.

Thomas concluded: “Most people start drinking wine and go ‘ugh’, but soon it’s a different matter.

“Sometimes I wonder why people persevere, but they do, and they have another glass. It doesn’t take long to find something you like.

“Very often the wines we like to begin with are the cheapest ones, because they’re designed to be drinkable. It’s not until we’re older that we tend start to veer off into the more expensive and the more unusual.”

A whole world of wines is just out there waiting to be tasted and there is no time like the present to get started!

Three Choirs hits the headlines

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 09:54:57 GMT

Three Choirs Vineyards was recently featured in the national media.

Not only was it named in the feature 11 of the best vineyard stays in the UK in The Times online, it also had an entire feature devoted to it in the Express online and appeared in the world’s longest running women’s magazine.

The People’s Friend is a weekly magazine full of lifestyle, cooking and gardening features, along with short stories and fiction serials.

Ahead of English Wine Week (21st to 29th June), we were featured in an article highlighting three UK vineyards – Aldwick Estate in Bristol, Chet Valley Vineyard in Norfolk and, of course, Three Choirs Vineyards, right here in Gloucestershire.

The article said there are more than 1,000 vineyards in the UK and that winemaking is one of the fastest growing sectors of agriculture. We’re pleased to say that The People’s Friend said Three Choirs is a ‘top-drawer example’ of an English vineyard, producing around 250,000 bottles a year.

The article quotes our managing director, Thomas Shaw, who said: “Three Choirs Vineyard’s focus is the quality of the wines and the visitor experience.”

He added: “As the climate changes, more and more varieties can be grown in the UK.”

The article shared that most of our wine is sold direct to customers online, to wine merchants or consumed by guests at our brasserie at the vineyard, with a small number of bottles sold to Waitrose.

The People’s Friend chose one favourite wine from each of the three producers featured. Its choice from Three Choirs was the Coleridge Hill 2023 – a dry white wine produced from Madeleine Angevine and Phoenix grapes.

The magazine said: “With its fresh fruity aromas, especially apple, it’s zesty on the palate thanks to the ripe fruit flavours, and offers a long, crisp finish.”

The Times’ online article focused less on the wine and more on our accommodation. The article is a round-up of vineyard accommodation in England and Wales: “From cosy B&Bs to luxury hotels, shepherd’s huts to treehouses.”

The article said: “The reputation of British wine has followed a similar trajectory to that of British food: once an international joke, it is now celebrated at home and abroad. British sparkling wines beat their better-known rivals in blind tastings…

“The steep rise in wine quality has been matched by a huge growth in wine tourism. Some have simple B&Bs offering little more than a vineyard tour and tasting, while others have luxury hotels with a Michelin-starred restaurant. Wherever you spend the night, all have the same benefit: there’s no argument about whose turn it is to be the designated driver for the evening.”

The Times described Three Choirs Vineyards as ‘Best for a romantic weekend away’.

It said: “Gloucestershire is home to one of England’s oldest commercial vineyards. Three Choirs was planted as an experiment in 1973, and the original half-acre of vines now extends across 75 acres, just south of the Malvern Hills.

“The vineyards produce 12 white, red, rosé and sparkling wines, which can be sampled either on an afternoon self-guided wine tasting and vineyard walk, or with a member of the winemaking team to offer expert analysis; order a bottle of your favourite with a tapas supper in the Brasserie afterwards.

“The 11 guest rooms are designed with couples in mind. Whichever you book, there is peace and privacy throughout your stay.”

And the Express devoted an entire feature to Three Choirs - I stayed at Three Choirs Vineyards who produce wine for Jeremy Clarkson - it was incredible.

Journalist Sophie Harris wrote: “Summer is the perfect time to stay at a vineyard and to sample some fine wines. I recently took a trip to Three Choirs Vineyards in Gloucestershire, and I couldn't recommend it enough.”

She continued: “Unlike other vineyards I’ve been to, this one is open all year round, meaning you can experience the frosty winter mornings, as well as warm summer evenings. I've been to many vineyards over the years, and Three Choirs Vineyards felt different, more intimate, more welcoming and the best views I've ever experienced.”

Sophie enjoyed her meal at the Brasserie and said the tapas dishes really complemented the wine. She also experienced wine tasting outdoors in beautiful weather, which she described as one of the best wine tasting experiences she’d ever had. The journalist added that she was fascinated by the winery and the different processes for each of the wines we make.

She praised the charcuterie board offered with the wine tasting, as she said she prefers the taste of wine when accompanied by food, but that food isn’t always offered elsewhere.

She wrote: “My favourite wine on offer at the vineyard was Bacchus 2022, an elegant, dry, aromatic wine with intense fruit character. The rosé was also delicious with ripe berry fruit aromas, and it's sold at Jeremy Clarkson’s Farmer’s Dog pub.”

Sophie concluded: “The stay was very enjoyable and relaxing, and I hope to revisit again in the future.”

If you would like to experience what The Times and Express describe, book one of our luxurious Vineyard View Rooms or Luxury Vineyard Lodges to really get away from it all.

It is a real honour to get a mention in three such different, but equally well respected media, and we look forward to welcoming guests who have just discovered us through either The People’s Friend, The Times or Express articles.

Meet our Winemaker

Fri, 23 May 2025 10:03:25 GMT

Martin Fowke is Three Choirs Vineyard’s winemaker. Now aged 62, he has been with us for over 40 years, having joined in 1984.

He studied agriculture and horticulture at the Royal Agricultural College (now Royal Agricultural University) in Cirencester and went to Three Choirs for some work experience.

Martin said he ‘fell into’ the industry. He met a girl, who he has now been happily married to for many years. Her father ran an apple and blackcurrant farm and planted a vineyard in 1973. Three Choirs Vineyard was born…

He joined when the company was in its infancy and worked his way up quickly.

Martin joked: “I was the only one who knew how to use a computer!”

He left Three Choirs briefly in the 1980s to go travelling. On his travels, he went to the wine making regions of Australia, New Zealand and California and picked up some tips along the way.

On his return to Gloucestershire in 1989, Martin took over the winemaking side of the business.

Martin said: “I wasn’t officially trained, there wasn’t the training that is available to young people these days. I worked with my father in law and learned on the job. I had some very good teachers.”

Our winemaker loves his job and says he has never looked back since those early days.

English winemaking can be more challenging than in other parts of the world, but Martin’s experience means he’s seen it all before and can adapt and change as needed.

He said: “Compared to the rest of the world, the English climate is traditionally less reliable. We have different challenges every year, which gives us the opportunity to do different things every year, and the grapes allow us to make lots of different wines.

“Now England is considered a bona fide wine producing country. Climate change means we get more consistency with the weather and therefore the grapes and the wine.

“Compared to the rest of the England, Three Choirs Vineyard has mild weather, with protection from the Welsh mountains, Cotswold hills and Malvern hills. We get good sunlight and relatively low rainfall. It’s ideal for vines!”

Being a relatively small vineyard, Martin enjoys the opportunity to experiment, alongside producing the high quality wines our customers love.

“We have a responsibility to produce consistent wines, but the beauty of what we do here is I also have the latitude to be able to experiment. We’re always trying new things and different things.

“Our latest success is an orange wine. This is produced in different parts of the world, but not in England.

“We’re always looking to change and develop. People’s tastes don’t stay still, and the market doesn’t stay still, so we’re always evolving.”

Of all the wines we produce, does Martin have a favourite?

“They’re like children – it’s impossible to choose just one! I’m proud of most of them. The newer wines that come on are always interesting. But the ones I hang my hat on are Bacchus and Siegerrebe.”

After more than 40 years of winemaking in the Gloucestershire countryside, is Martin ready to move on?

“I’ve got a very good team here, who make my life easier. We’ve got a good succession in place, but I don’t plan on retiring any time soon!”

Behind the scenes: How we harvest our grapes

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 10:09:48 GMT

Harvesting our grapes here at Three Choirs Vineyard takes place in autumn. But thinking about the harvest starts around the middle of summer, after the vines flower at the end of June or the start of July.

Thomas Shaw, managing director of Three Choirs Vineyard, said: “The flowering gives an indication of the potential size of the crop. We want good weather when the vines are flowering, so the flowers set quickly. If the weather is damp during flowering, you can get different size of grapes – we can get grapes with three weeks difference in age.

“We have to work our way through the processes. There are so many variables and a lot that can go wrong. What we don’t need is for it to get warm, mild and wet in spring, then suddenly get a late frost.

“We monitor the fruit set and development of the grapes and check they are free from disease constantly during this time.”

The first grapes will be picked around the end of the first week or middle of the second week of September. Exactly when the harvest starts will depend on how much sunlight the vines have had over the summer and how warm the ambient temperature has been. In total, the harvest will take between six and eight weeks.

Thomas continued: “There are all sorts of things that affect the exact timing of the harvest. The bigger the crop, the harder it is for the vines to ripen the fruit, so it will take longer and be a later harvest.”

We grow 12 varieties of grapes here, which all behave in different ways. There is a lot to monitor to help us decide which grapes should be picked first and which should remain on the vines a bit longer.

Vineyards have microclimates, which means one variety might do very well in one area and might behave differently in another location only a few hundred metres away.

We pick all of our grapes by hand here at Three Choirs Vineyard. On an average day, we will have about 15 people picking. We take on extra seasonal staff, using a local agency which supplies farm workers.

Grapes are placed into plastic bins, which can hold about 300kg of fruit each. These are then loaded onto a trailer and taken to the winery for pressing.

The grapes are pressed on the same day they are picked. The pressers are all automatic and can be pre-programmed. It takes about three people to fill a press and get it ready, then once it is working, it is entirely automatic.

Pressers can hold up to four tonnes of fruit. From each tonne of grapes, we would expect to get the equivalent in juice of about 800 bottles.

Thomas added: “All these measurements are approximate. Some years the grapes might weigh heavy and not have as much juice and some years it will be the other way round.”

The exact length of time the harvest lasts depends on the weather. If it is a nice dry autumn, the fruit will hang for longer and the sugar levels will increase. We are always looking for a balance between the sugar and the acidity. Sugar turns to alcohol, while the acidity helps to keep the flavour of the wine fresh and clean.

The harvest is a balancing act, with lots of variables to consider. But we are all experienced and have been doing this for so long that it isn’t stressful. At the end of it all, we will produce thousands of delicious bottles of wine to enjoy. Then we will be ready to start it all over again next year!

A sustainable vineyard: Our commitment to the environment

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 10:09:27 GMT

Here at Three Choirs Vineyard, we are committed to being as sustainable as possible.

However, the vineyard isn’t organic. We do believe it’s not possible to be fully organic in this country, but we do limit our use of pesticides to the absolute minimum. We probably use about a quarter of what we are legally allowed to use.

One way we reduce our use of pesticides is by using foliar feeds made from seaweed extracts. Foliar feeds feed the vine directly through the leaf, allowing the vines to absorb essential elements quickly. The theory behind using these feeds is that, if we keep the vines healthy and strong, they will be better able to defend themselves from disease.

In the UK, the biggest risk to vines isn’t from insects, it is from mildew. Mildew can slow down the growth of the vines and reduce both the quantity and quality of the grapes. It can also weaken the plants and make them more vulnerable to disease or insects. Grapes like cold weather in winter and warm, dry weather in the summer. But in this country, we have a lot damp, warm weather, which causes mildew to thrive. If we have a year like we had in 2024, there can be a lot of disease, which impacts our harvest.

We don’t have any irrigation in the vineyard, so our water consumption is probably lower than you would expect for a business like ours. In fact, we don’t have a huge amount of water available, so we do have to be careful not to use too much. We use water sprays and pressure to clean out our tanks, which clean effectively using a lot less water than other cleaning methods.

Glass production and transport uses a lot of energy. This can have a really negative impact on the wine industry’s sustainability, so it is important to us to use the lightest weight glass we can for our bottles.

Thomas Shaw, managing director, said: “The problem is there’s a consumer reaction to the weight of a bottle. People pick up a light wine bottle and think it’s cheap, whereas we pick up a light bottle and say, ‘Isn’t that amazing?’”

Although the bottles for sparkling wine are always thicker and heavier – they have to be to take the pressure of the secondary fermentation which takes place in the bottle and causes the bubbles.

Three Choirs Vineyard use screw caps rather than cork. There are pros and cons of each, but we feel that screw caps are the best way forward and the best way to seal a bottle. Too much use of cork will kill the cork trees and the wildlife that live there. Metal screw caps can easily be recycled, although whether people do recycle them, we’re not sure! If you’re reading this, please do your bit and recycle your metal screw caps.

But sustainability isn’t just something we think about for the vineyard itself and the wine. It is something we consider for the entire business. All of our electricity across the vineyard from the vinery to the brasserie and our guest rooms is from 100% renewable, certified genuine green sources. And all food waste from the kitchen goes to a digester and is turned into electricity off-site.

We aim to avoid single use plastics wherever possible. We don’t have little plastic bottles in the bedrooms like you still see in many hotels. Instead, we use bigger refillable bottles of soap, shampoos and shower gels.

Most of our laundry is handled on site at Three Choirs, reducing the need for extra transportation to an external service. We launder items like towels, robes, and kitchen cloths in house. The only exception is our bed linen, which we outsource to a local company since we don’t have the facilities for ironing and pressing.

We have pumps on site, so our electricity usage is very low.

We recycle as much as we can – glass bottles, of course, but also waste cardboard, aluminium cans and plastic.

As a consequence of Three Choirs’ low use of chemicals, the vineyard is a haven for wildlife – from rabbits and badgers to woodpeckers. The five ponds on site attract a range of visitors from newts to dragonflies.

Thomas continued: “I think we are doing well compared to the industry as a whole. There’s a lot of talk of sustainability within the industry, but I think there’s also a lot of greenwashing – as there is in a lot of industries.”

Greenwashing is when a company or product is marketed as environmentally friendly, without making any meaningful changes. It can mean consumers end up buying from businesses who are good at PR rather than those which are making a genuine effort to be sustainable and reduce their environmental impact.

Thomas said: “It’s complicated and every business is different. But every business has to look and see what they’re wasting that they shouldn’t be. Look in the rubbish bin and you’ll get an idea of what you shouldn’t be using in the first place!”

He concluded: “We take sustainability seriously and we do as much as possible within the constraints of a business like ours – combining the wine making and the hospitality side of the business.”

Exploring the Three Counties: Day trips from our vineyard

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 10:24:02 GMT

There is nothing better than relaxing at our vineyard with a leisurely walk among the vines, a delicious lunch at our brasserie and a fun wine tasting session. But that’s not all there is to do here!

Three Choirs Vineyard makes a great base to explore the Three Counties of Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire. We’re located between Newent and Dymock in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, close to the borders of both Herefordshire and Worcestershire. If you enjoy walks in the countryside, you’ve come to the right place!

The Malvern Hills are a half hour drive away and provide lots of walks of varying lengths with some fantastic views on a clear day.

Or if you prefer your walks to be a bit flatter, there are plenty of options in the Forest of Dean. The circular 4.5-mile Sculpture Trail walk is perfect for working up an appetite. Or try the Cannop Ponds walk – just two miles and no stiles, talking in the ponds, a Forest Freemine and an unusual monument. Mallards Pike is one of the most scenic spots in the Forest of Dean and offers a variety of walking routes, as well as Go Ape for the most adventurous.

You can also hire bikes at Pedalabikeaway Cycle Centre in Cannop Valley – the only mountain bike hire location in the Forest of Dean with direct access to all the mountain bike trails in the forest.

Or for a more relaxing alternative, Dean Forest Railway runs steam trains on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sunday on a nine mile, 90-minute round trip with five stations along the way.

We’re just 11 miles from Gloucester, with its historic cathedral and docks, as well as outlet shopping at Gloucester Quays and the new Gloucester Food Dock, with an array of independent local food and drink businesses offering something for everyone. And if you’re a rugby fan – why not catch a game at the legendary Kingsholm?

Or stay on the A40 just a bit longer and head for Regency Cheltenham for shopping or its famous festivals – Jazz in May, Science in June, Music in July and Literature in October. And don’t forget racing at Cheltenham Racecourse if you enjoy a bit of a flutter!

Closer to the vineyard, but only happening once a year is the Kempley Daffodil Weekend. Taking place in the middle of March, the weekend offers visitors daffodil teas, bacon butties, guided walks, the daff-and-ride bus and the main event of a glorious carpet of wild daffodils. And Dymock’s annual Daffodil Weekend and Spring Fayre takes place at a similar time (but not the same weekend) at Dymock parish hall.

There is also the circular ‘Daffodil Way’ footpath covering around eight miles. The daffodils can be seen from the roads between Newent and Dymock in the spring and local maps showing the daffodil fields can be picked up from Kempley village hall.

If you don’t mind a slightly longer drive, Hay-on-Wye is world renowned for books and bookshops, occupies a unique position on the border between England and Wales, and is a beautiful place to explore. The world famous, annual Hay Festival takes place at the end of May every year.

A perfect day at our vineyard: From wine tastings to lunch

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 09:59:39 GMT

If you’re looking for a perfect day where you can relax, unwind and get away from it all, there is no better place than our vineyard.

You might arrive at the vineyard in the morning or at lunchtime, but the most perfect day would be waking up in one of our rooms or lodges at the vineyard, feeling refreshed. There is no feeling quite like waking up amongst the vines to the beauty of the vineyard, the rolling countryside and the sound of the birds singing.

You might want to enjoy coffee on the terrace, before heading to the brasserie for a freshly cooked, leisurely breakfast.

After breakfast, take a walk around the vines and get to know our environment and see for yourself exactly where delicious Three Choirs Vineyard wine comes from.

You might want to spend a few hours relaxing or reading in your room before lunch or you might want to explore the local area. The Malverns is a beautiful place to walk, and it isn’t too far away. Or May Hill is even closer to the vineyard, with stunning panoramic views across Gloucestershire and the Severn Valley towards Gloucester and even Bristol on a clear day.

Find a country pub for lunch or head back to the vineyard for lunch at the brasserie. The choice is yours…

It wouldn’t be a perfect stay at the vineyard without wine tasting. Wine tasting for guests staying in our accommodation takes place every day at 2:30pm and 4:30pm. Guests can choose five wines to try from our wine list.

Thomas Shaw, managing director, said: “Our wine tasting is all very leisurely. It’s not a classroom where you’re lectured. We like guests to relax, take their time and enjoy the wines. Nobody is checking that they’re tasting it ‘properly’.

“We have tasting notes and can give advice if they want it, but most people like to choose things they like the sound of and chat to their partners and friends about them. That way, you can build up a library in your head of flavours you like.”

A perfect day at the vineyard is rounded off with a leisurely supper at the brasserie – or outside on a lovely evening. Our menu is all little dishes, designed to complement our wines. You can mix and match your dishes or share them to try as many as possible! Have a glass or a bottle of the wine you enjoyed at the tasting and savour it with the different foods.

Thomas continued: “A lot of people talk about food and wine matching, but I’m not a fan. There are so many tastebuds, and what some people like, others will dislike. Try different things and see what stands out for you as a good match. It doesn’t matter what others think.”

And even though you’re staying on a vineyard, you don’t have to drink wine. We offer a range of beers and spirits to enjoy with dinner too.

A perfect day at the vineyard would be rounded off by spending another night with us. No need to rush off, no need to worry about driving, just sink into one of our big, comfy beds. The real world can wait until tomorrow morning!

Luxury stays at our vineyard: A getaway like no other

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 10:37:10 GMT

Whether you’re a wine connoisseur, a wine beginner or you just want a peaceful stay in the countryside, there really is no getaway quite like a luxury stay at Three Choirs Vineyard.

A visit to the vineyard is a chance to relax and get away from it all. We’ve got plenty of space to enjoy the vines and the landscape, which is beautiful whatever time of year you stay. In winter, it’s very atmospheric, with clouds settling in the valley below the rooms.

We have two different types of rooms. The vineyard view rooms are in a terrace adjacent to the brasserie and the lodge rooms are individual. Whichever room you choose, you will be guaranteed beautiful views and an outside seating area to relax and unwind.

The lodge rooms consist of a bedroom, a bathroom and a veranda set in the vines. They are about 500 metres from the other buildings, located amongst the vines and a bit quieter than the vineyard view rooms. But if you’re at all nervous about the great outdoors and wouldn’t like to have your sleep disturbed by a badger walking past or a bird scratching, you might want to opt for a vineyard view room. We want to be sure your break is a relaxing one, not a stressful one!

The vineyard view rooms, have 6’ wide super king beds for a really restful night’s sleep. Decorated in an eclectic mix of English and French design, the rooms also have a comfortable seat or two, and a desk. Tea and coffee are provided, and bathrooms have either a large monsoon shower or a bath with shower over.

To make your stay special, you can have a bottle of sparkling wine ready in your room or handmade chocolates or balloons for a special occasion.

An excellent cooked breakfast, freshly made to order, is served to all guests in the brasserie.

You might also want to have lunch or dinner at our brasserie. Lunch is served Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and dinner is served daily. We wanted to serve something a bit different from the same kind of food that is available in gastropubs everywhere.

We serve a ‘Tapas style’ little plates menu, which is perfect for sharing and grazing throughout your lunch or dinner. Our different dishes and flavours have been designed to complement our range of wines.

Our brasserie is less formal, casual dining which reflects the casual, relaxed setting of our vineyards. In winter, it is warmed by a cosy wood burner. In summer, you can take a glass of sparkling wine and a couple of tapas plates out onto the terrace to enjoy.

When you visit Three Choirs Vineyard, you might want to taste some of our unique English wines. For guests, we offer wine tasting twice a day, for £20 per person. You can try your choice of five 50ml wines from the vineyard, including sparkling wines, and take a walk around the 75-acre vineyard at your leisure.

Worried you don’t know enough about wine to take part in wine tasting? Don’t be!

Thomas Shaw, managing director, said: “We try very hard not to make the wine intimidating. There are people who are nervous about wine. We want to make it accessible. Wine is for pleasure. It’s for enjoying, you shouldn’t feel intimidated by it.

“The whole place is very relaxed; our staff are very friendly. We don’t have a sommelier at your shoulder telling you what you should eat and drink, we want you to eat and drink what you would like to eat and drink!

“Three Choirs is more akin to Australia and California than some of the more formal vineyards.”

If you just want to spend the whole of your stay chilling out at the vineyard, that is perfectly understandable. But if you want to explore the area, Three Choirs makes a great base.

For walkers, the Malvern Hills are about 20 minutes away or you might prefer walks in the nearby Forest of Dean. Cheltenham with its famous racecourse is half an hour away or you could visit the cathedral city of Hereford, or Gloucester for outlet shopping. There is easy access to the Cotswolds and water activities on the River Severn at Symonds Yat if you’re feeling adventurous.

Thomas added: “The market town of Ledbury is 10 to 15 minutes away. It’s very popular because of all its independent traders. There are no chain stores in Ledbury!”

Three Choirs Vineyard is for adults only and suited to couples or small groups of four to six people. We don’t take big parties, so you can be sure your relaxing stay won’t be disturbed by other people! It really is a getaway like no other.

How can I tell a good wine from a bad wine by just looking at the label?

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 11:44:05 GMT

Is it possible to tell a good wine from a bad wine just by looking at the label? It is, but you need to know what you are looking for!

When you’re shopping for wines, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the range of labels on the shelf and to get drawn to the most attractive labels. Some of them look like miniature works of art. But going for the best looking label isn’t usually the right way to shop.

A good wine is the product of good fruit, grown in good soil by someone who cares about the grapes, the soil and winemaking. But a good label is the work of a good graphic designer, possibly with the help of a marketing agency.

The label on a good bottle of wine will have no problem in displaying the detail which matters and will help you to make a decision. The best wines will display grape variety, origin and age on the label.

Our labels proudly display the term 'Hand Harvested'. Hand harvested grapes, are grapes that have been picked by hand, rather than by machine. Hand harvesting is a traditional method that involves picking grapes bunch by bunch, and is considered to produce higher quality grapes.

The key information you should look for on a wine label is:

Country and region
Name and/ or producer
Grape variety
Vintage or non-vintage
Alcohol level (ABV)

Country and region

Some wines are named after their place of origin (possibly the most famous being Champagne). But even if they’re not famous, most wine labels will include the wine’s country of origin.

In some cases, producers will display the region as well as the country. Knowing your regions will help you to find better quality wine. A region like Rioja in Spain will give the wine enthusiast an indication of what they should expect from the wine, due to the region’s reputation and the unique flavour of the wine, influenced by the climate and soil in the region.

A French wine produced in an area with minimal regulations is a Vin de Pays (VdP). One which is produced in area with strict regulations is described as Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC). Champagne is one example of an AOC wine. AOC is considered more premium than VdP.

But be careful of vague words on labels. A phrase like Grand Vin de Bordeaux is just marketing-speak. It’s not a legally defined term and any producer in the Bordeaux region can include that on a label, whatever the quality of the wine.

Generally, the more specific the location, the better the wine. A label just marked as ‘Spanish’ or ‘Wine of France’ will tell you that it is a cheaper, lower quality wine.

Name and/ or producer

The name of the wine producer will be included on the label on the front of most wine bottles. The producer could be a company, a family or an individual.

Unless you’re a real wine enthusiast, or it is a famous brand, the producer might not mean a lot to you. But every producer will bring their own experience to their wines.

Look out for wines marked ‘estate grown’ or ‘estate bottled’. Estate bottled wines are usually better quality than wines produced on a larger scale – because the person who grew the grapes has also made the wine and will be more likely to care about the finished product.

For French wines, the phrase to look out for is ‘Mis en bouteille’ and for Italian wines it is ‘Imbottigliato all’origine’.

Grape variety

There are many different varieties of grape, which all have their own flavours and characteristics, affecting the wine. If the wine is made from a single grape eg Merlot, that will usually be displayed on the label. If there is no grape on the label, it may be that the wine is made from a blend of grapes.

Another reason for not including the grape variety on the label is that producers assume buyers know which grapes are used in certain wines eg red Burgundy is made from Pinot Noir grapes.

Generally, New World wines are more likely to include grape variety on their labels than traditional European wines.

Even if the grape is named on the label, a wine may contain up to 15% of a different grape, depending on the regulations. Producers don’t need to mention these other grapes on the label.

Vintage or non-vintage

The year a wine was produced – its vintage – may be on the front label or the label on the back of the bottle.

The vintage is the year the grapes were harvested. For good quality wines, the general view is that the older the wine, the better.

But the quality and taste of the wine will vary from year to year, depending on the weather. For higher-end wines, the vintage can tell you something about the quality of that particular bottle eg was 2016 a particularly wet year or 2018 a very hot year?

Not all wines are vintage. Non-vintage wines are made from a blend of grapes from different harvests, usually to try to regulate the flavour. Non-vintage wines are generally lower value or mass-produced by big brands. As a rule of thumb, non-vintage wines are ready for drinking immediately and won’t improve with age.

Alcohol level

The alcohol level by volume (ABV) will always be on the label on either the front or back of the bottle. Legally, it only has to be accurate to 0.5%.

ABV for red wines is usually around 13.5%, while white wines tend to be a bit lower. Wines with ABV lower than 11% are sweeter and those above 15% have more intense flavour.

The ABV can help pair wine with food – as generally a lighter wine works better with lighter food, while a heavier red works better with richer food. In this case, a wine with an ABV of 15.5% might be the best choice.

With all these clues on the label, it should be possible to tell a good wine from a bad one. The key thing is to read the information on the label, rather than just admire the label’s design or the wine’s interesting name.

Three Choirs Vineyard featured by The Guardian

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 08:35:43 GMT

Our beautiful accommodation here at Three Choirs Vineyard has been highlighted in a feature in The Guardian.

The feature Walks with a focal point: five of the best UK hikes with extras appeared on the national newspaper’s website in September 2023.

It features dramatic and interesting walks from across the UK – Glen Nevis (in the shadow of Ben Nevis) in Scotland, Blackchurch Rock in north Devon, The Eden Project in Cornwall and Flamborough Head in East Yorkshire. Each of the walks includes recommended accommodation.

Much closer to home, the feature recommends exploring the Medieval art at St Mary’s church in Kempley, Gloucestershire. The featured walk is part of the 100-mile circular Three Choirs Way, which connects Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford cathedrals.

So, it makes sense that the recommended accommodation to accompany the walk is right here at Three Choirs Vineyard!

Kempley is a parish with just 280 residents, but it boasts two churches – both of which are very interesting. St Mary’s church is full of medieval art, which was lost for many years.

The Guardian wrote: “Built in the early 12th century, the nave has the more earthly visions of the medieval artists, while the chancel gets the heavenly scenes of salvation and Christ at the Apocalypse. When such murals became unpopular, they were whitewashed over, and only rediscovered in 1872. Victorian conservation methods, however, backfired. The lacquer that was used to “preserve” the delicate paintings turned black with age and hid them for a second time.”

The St Mary’s murals were rediscovered for a second time in the 1950s.

St Edward’s church was built in 1903 of Forest of Dean red sandstone and is heavily influenced by the Edwardian Arts and Crafts movement.

If you would like to follow this walk, visit the churches or experience Kempley’s wonderful daffodils in the spring, book one of our luxurious Vineyard View Rooms or Luxury Vineyard Lodges to really get away from it all.

It is a real honour to get a mention on such a well-respected news site and we look forward to welcoming guests who have just discovered us through The Guardian article.

Read the article here

What is terroir?

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 09:00:01 GMT

Whether you’re a wine connoisseur or completely new to the world of wines, you might be confused about the word ‘terroir’.

Terroir is a French word meaning a sense of place, taking into account things like the region, soil and climate of an area. A particular combination of natural factors, like soil, climate and vine affect the taste of the wine.

Together, they give a wine its terroir – its unique identity.

Because the unique combinations are different, the terroir for every wine making region is different and it can even differ between neighbouring vineyards.

Historically, terroir was the basis of the French wine appellation (AOC) system which means, for example, that only sparking wine produced in the Champagne region of France can be called Champagne. The AOC system presumes that the land from which the grapes are grown gives the wine a unique quality.

The influence of terroir means wines from a particular region are unique and cannot be reproduced elsewhere – even if the same grapes are used and the winemaking techniques followed precisely.

So winemakers in Burgundy in France don’t believe they are making a Pinot Noir in Burgundy, they are making their own unique Burgundy wines, which happens to use Pinot Noir grapes.

While vintages change from year to year, depending on the particular weather factors that year, the terroir of a wine should stay the same.

The main factors which influence terroir are:

Climate

Wine regions can be roughly divided into warm climate (eg southern Europe, Australia and California) and cool climate (northern Europe and the UK). Cooler climate grapes lead to wines with lower sugar levels and more acidity, while grapes from warmer climates have higher sugar levels, leading to higher alcohol levels.

Other climate factors play a part in terroir, like rainfall, humidity, wind and sunlight. Sunlight is necessary for grapes to produce sugar, but it is possible to have too much. Rain is vital for vine growth, but too much can dilute flavours and cause disease.

(Temperature may fluctuate of course and you may have an exceptionally warm, cool or wet growing season which may affect individual vintages, but the climate is based on the average temperature and climate over a long period of time.)

Soil

There are hundreds or even thousands of types of soil, mineral and rock deposits in vineyards around the world, which all have an impact on the unique flavour of the wine from a particular region.

The soil is responsible for the nutrients the grapes need to grow, and the type of soil grapes are grown in can have a significant effect on the flavour of the wine.

It is not only the nutrients in the soil which can affect the terroir, but also the consistency of the soil – eg whether it contains clay, pebbles or sand. These all affect the drainage of the soil and its ability to absorb or reflect the heat of the sun, which all have an effect on the grapes.

Terrain

Altitude plays a part in the terroir of wine, as do geological features, like mountains and valleys, other nearby plants and trees and the proximity of a vineyard to the sea, large rivers or lakes.

Steeper slopes drain well and may get more sunlight. Higher altitudes tend to mean cooler nights. Mountains can offer protection against the winds, while lakes help to keep an area cooler in summer and warmer in winter.

Does wine always have terroir? Not all wines have this sense of place. This is especially true for blended wines, which use grapes from different regions. Mass-produced wines, such as those sold in the supermarket, rarely have terroir. They are made to be enjoyed by a lot of people at a fairly low price. The grapes are grown to high yields and low costs – not using premium grapes from a single vineyard or region.

Terroir isn’t a hard and fast rule. Changes over time affect the grapes and the wine. Climate change means there is a major shift in terroir – not just from higher temperatures increasing the sugar content of the grapes, but from an increase in floods and drought, which make growing grapes far more challenging.

So while terroir gives a wine its unique sense of place, it will change and develop in the coming years and decades.

Why is Prosecco much cheaper than Champagne?

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 08:48:17 GMT

When you’re celebrating or even if you just fancy a treat, you can’t beat a glass of Prosecco or Champagne. They are both guaranteed to raise the spirits of any occasion. But why is Prosecco so much cheaper than Champagne?

It’s a question many of us will ask, when we’re stocking up for a party or standing at a bar or supermarket checkout waiting to pay!

Over the last 10 years, Prosecco has really grown in popularity. In many situations, it makes for a nice, cheaper alternative to Champagne. In fact, its affordability is one of the reasons so many people choose it.

But while it makes a good value alternative to Champagne for a special occasion, Prosecco is actually a completely different wine and there are several reasons why it is cheaper than Champagne.

Place of origin

Champagne is specific to a region of France – the Champagne region in the north east of the country. Only sparkling wine from this region can be called Champagne. The region has a cooler climate and shorter growing season than other wine growing areas, making it more expensive and difficult to grow grapes.

Prosecco is also specific to a region – the Veneto region in north eastern Italy. The growing region for Prosecco has expanded in line with the popularity of Prosecco, allowing it to produce large quantities of the sparkling wine and keep the cost to consumers down.

Grapes

There are strict rules governing which grapes can be used to make Champagne. The three grapes which make up most commercially available Champagnes and 99% of planting in the region are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. These grapes are all difficult to grow and cultivate, keeping the price of Champagne high.

There are four other varieties of grape which can also be used. But they must all be grown in the Champagne region.

Prosecco is made from the Glera grape, which is considered easier to grow and cultivate. Italy’s climate is also better suited to growing grapes.

Production methods

The production method for Champagne is slower, more labour intensive and more expensive than the production method for Prosecco.

Champagne is made using a traditional method. First, the juice from the pressed grapes is put in barrels for primary fermentation. Once primary fermentation is complete, the still wine is transferred into bottles, where the secondary fermentation takes place, with the help of yeast and sugar. During this time, the wine undergoes a chemical change, and the characteristic bubbles are formed. Champagne must spend at least 15 months in the bottle before it is sold.

By contrast, the production method for Prosecco is much quicker and much cheaper – making a big contribution to the lower price of Prosecco. It is made using the Charmat or tank method. The still juice from the pressed grapes is placed in a large stainless steel tank. Winemakers add yeast and sugar to the tank. Fermentation takes place in the tank and the bubbles are created. The sparkling wine is then bottled up ready for sale. Making Prosecco can take as little as two months.

Perception

Champagne is seen as a luxury product, whereas Prosecco is seen as more of a fun drink. Just the word ‘Champagne’ is worth a few extra pounds per bottle. Producers know people are willing to pay more for the luxury of Champagne and it is priced accordingly.

Champagne brand names like Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Cristal in particular are able to command the highest prices because of their association with luxury lifestyles and luxury events from Formula One to celebrity parties and collaborations with high-end fashion brands like Stella McCartney.

While Prosecco is certainly cheaper than Champagne, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s of a lower quality. The different production methods and the smaller producing region are just two of the reasons why Champagne is more expensive than Prosecco. But they are both great drinks to enjoy, whatever and whenever you are celebrating!

Do red grapes only make red wine?

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 08:00:01 GMT

When you think about wine, it is usual to assume that red wine comes from red grapes and white wine comes from white grapes. While that is usually the case, it is actually possible to make white wine from red grapes.

Whether red or white, nearly all grapes actually produce clear juice. The colour of the wine comes from the grape’s skin rather than its juice.

Most of the pigment from grapes is in the skin. For red wine, the skin and seeds stay in contact with the grape juice during fermentation. This is a process known as maceration and is responsible for a red wine’s colour and flavour. A longer maceration time results in a darker coloured wine with a more intense flavour. The skins are only separated from the wine after fermentation is complete.

The skin of red grapes is also responsible for a really key component of red wine – tannins. Tannins provide the underlying backbone of the wine, around which complex flavours are built. They also help to preserve the wine, allowing red wine to age for longer than most whites.

When making white wine, the skin is removed from the grapes before fermentation, making a clear juice and ultimately a white wine.

Red or rosé wines are always made with red grapes. But lighter skinned red grapes, like Pinot Noir, produce a fresher red wine, while a thick skinned grape like Cabernet Sauvignon gives a more powerful and concentrated red.

In fact, the Pinot Noir is one of the most versatile grapes around, which can be used to make red wine, white wine, rosé wine and sparkling wine. The flesh of the grape is a pale greenish yellow, with the only red being in the skin. It is the different production processes rather than the colour of the grape which make the difference between red, white, rosé and sparkling wine.

Pinot Noir’s thinner skin also means it has less pigment than some red grapes, meaning it takes longer to dye the wine, so red wines made from Pinot Noir grapes often need an extended time with the skins.

Rosé wines also get their colour from the skins of red grapes, but they are macerated for a much shorter time – sometimes only a matter of hours - long enough to get the signature pink colour, but not so long that the wine turns red. It will then be fermented in a similar way to white wine. Typically, rosé wines don’t contain tannins.

But if the skins of red grapes are removed before concentration, it is possible to use red grapes to make a white wine. While the vast majority of white wines are made with white grapes, some white wines – including many Champagnes – are made from red grapes, in a style known as Blanc de Noir.

Of course, regardless of which red grapes are being used, red grape skin will start to dye the wine quickly, so it is important for winemakers to press the grapes and remove the skin as soon as possible when making white wine or sparkling wine with red grapes.

Although you can make white wine from red grapes, red wine from red grapes and white wine from white grapes, you cannot make red wine from white grapes!

What is the right temperature to serve wine?

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 06:45:00 GMT

Wines are at their absolute best when served at the right temperature. The temperature at which a wine is served can significantly affect its aromas and flavours, so it is important to get it as close to optimum temperature as you can.

Whether too warm or too cold, the wrong temperature means you will miss out on what makes a particular wine special. Too warm and it can taste dull and uninspiring, while too cold and its distinctive flavours will be lacking. If you get a strong smell of alcohol when you pour your wine, it is possible that it is too warm and needs cooling down before you drink it.

Too cool is better than too warm for wine and is far easier to adjust. In fact, once in the glass, wines can warm up pretty quickly – especially outside on a sunny day or in a warm restaurant with the heating on. If that looks likely, it is always a good idea to start with your wine a bit cooler than these suggested temperatures, because a lukewarm glass of wine isn’t appealing!

So what is the perfect temperature to serve wine?

Red wine

As a rule of thumb, red wine should be served at room temperature. But the reality is, your room is likely to be a bit warmer than the wine should be. Changing seasons, central heating and air conditioning all change the true temperature of a room.

Room temperature when it comes to wine is generally defined as around 15 to 18°C But most people will prefer their rooms to be around 19 or 20°C to feel comfortable.

If red wine is served at a temperature above 18°C, it will seem to lose its freshness. But if it is left to cool to optimal temperature, its balance should be restored and it will taste as you would expect it to taste.

Lighter reds, such as Pinot Noir should be served at quite a bit below ‘room temperature’ – around 12 to 13°C.
Medium reds, such as Merlot, should be served at around 13 to 15°C.

Full-bodied reds, like Cabernet Sauvignon, are best served at between 15 and 18°C.

So how do you serve wine at a bit below room temperature?

Although refrigerating red wine feels wrong, a few minutes in the fridge or quick dunk in a bucket of ice and water, can help to bring the temperature down from the real room temperature to the right temperature for the wine. Lighter reds may benefit from longer in the fridge, especially on a hot day.

If you’ve served red wine at too low a temperature, simply holding the glass in your hands for a few minutes can usually be enough to bring it up to the right temperature. Alternatively, decanting it into a container which has been rinsed in warm water can make the difference. Don’t be tempted to warm it quickly, for example by placing it near a radiator, as the sudden rise in temperature can damage the wine.

White wine

White wines are best served chilled at just above fridge temperature - around 7 to 13°C. Generally, the lighter or sweeter the wine, the cooler the serving temperature. But chilling to 6°C or lower can mask the flavour of the wine.

Light and medium-bodied white wines, such as Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio, are best served at around 8 or 9°C. At this temperature, the flavours will be crisp. To achieve this temperature, white wines should be chilled in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.

Full-bodied whites like Chardonnay can be served slightly warmer – at 10 to 13°C – to allow more flavour to emerge in the glass. These wines should be cooled in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.

Rosé wine

Like white wine, rosé wine tastes best at around 7 to 13°C and is very refreshing on a warm day. Giving it 20 to 30 minutes in the fridge will allow the berry flavours to come through. But chill it for too long and those fruit flavours will be lost!

If you’ve over-chilled, open the bottle and leave it on the table to gradually warm up.

Sparkling wine

The right temperature to serve sparkling wine is cold! To get the taste just right, it should be served at 3 to 7°C.

Prosecco is best when it is almost ice cold, while Champagne should be served slightly warmer to really taste its complex flavours. Vintage Champagne should be served at a higher temperature still – around 10 to 13°C, like a full-bodied white.

Sparkling wine should have at least 30 or 40 minutes in the fridge before serving. To avoid it warming up too quickly, either put it in an ice bucket or back in the fridge between pours.

It is important to serve your wine at the right temperature, but it is also important to store it at the right temperature. Surprisingly, the kitchen isn’t the best place to keep your wine. The temperature varies too much, especially if you are keeping your wine close to the oven or a radiator.

It is also important to store it away from bright light, including sunlight and LED lighting, as lighting can also cause wine to heat up in the bottle. Constant rising temperatures can cause wine to become ‘cooked’ in the bottle.

If you’re not intending to drink your wine soon after purchase, a wine fridge set to a constant 13°C is a good way to store all wines. You can then either bring it out of the wine fridge to gradually get it up to room temperature or put it in your main fridge to cool down, to ensure it is the right temperature to serve.

And if you’re not sure whether you’ve got it right and you’re absolutely determined to serve your wine at the best temperature, you can invest in a wine thermometer.

Once you’ve taken all those steps, you should have your wine at the right temperature, to enjoy it at its very best.

Are wines in heavy bottles better than those in lighter weight bottles?

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 09:00:00 GMT

What do you think when you pick up a heavy wine bottle? The wine must be a good quality one? What about a lighter wine bottle? Is it a cheap bottle of wine from the supermarket?

But are wines in heavy bottles actually better than those in lighter weight bottles?

It seems obvious, but the purpose of a wine bottle is to ensure the wine can be safely transported and stored. Its purpose isn’t to make a statement about the quality of the wine inside the bottle.

The reality is that wine can be safely transported in a light glass bottle or a heavy one. And it can age just as well in a light bottle as a heavy one.

But there is a perception among some wine drinkers that wines in heavier bottles are somehow better quality. So, if producers want to produce a wine in a higher price range, they may feel the pressure to use a heavier bottle to persuade consumers that their wine is a good quality one.

But times are changing.

There is no need for a good quality wine to be in a heavier bottle than a cheaper wine.

(Although sparkling wines do need a significantly heavier bottle, because of the secondary fermentation in the bottle which produces the bubbles of carbon dioxide. To withstand this pressure, the bottle needs to be sturdy.)
Glass bottles are the biggest source of carbon emissions in the wine supply chain. And heavier bottles have a bigger carbon footprint. Reducing the weight of wine bottles is a quick win for producers in terms of their sustainability.

The average empty wine bottle weighs about 500g. But there are still some wines on the market in a bottle weighing almost 1kg.

The heavier the wine bottle, the more it costs to produce and to transport and the higher its CO2 emission. This is an even bigger issue if the bottles aren’t produced locally and the empty bottles are shipped over to producers from somewhere distant like China.

Other drinks industries, including beer, cider and soft drinks, have been working towards lighter bottles for a number of years now.

Packaging industry body Wrap says reducing the weight of a wine bottle from 500g to 300g could reduce carbon emissions, through packaging production and transportation, by about 30% for a 750ml bottle.
As costs continue to rise for energy and raw materials, a lighter bottle also makes financial sense for a producer and helps them to keep prices down for the consumer.

British supermarket chains have introduced lighter bottles for their wines (and not just their cheapest wines!), without any impact on the wine itself or increased breakages during transportation.

Could it be that a heavier bottle isn’t an indication of a better quality wine, but an indication of a producer who either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care about the environmental impact of their wine? That is not something many of today’s consumers want to see.

Drinkers, especially younger drinkers like Millennials and Gen Z consumers, will vote with their wallets. If your wine tastes good and the price is right, but so does another wine, they will opt for the one in the more sustainable bottle.

It seems that wines in heavy bottles are no better than wines in lighter bottles, so there really is no excuse for producers to continue to use them. Ultimately, if consumers start demanding lighter bottles with a lower carbon footprint, producers will have to start using them.

And if big retailers start to impose bottle weight limits on their suppliers, the suppliers will be sure to change quickly, rather than lose out on lucrative sales of their wines.

What is the difference between Champagne and other sparkling wine?

Wed, 01 May 2024 08:00:01 GMT

Many of us enjoy a glass of sparkling wine, especially for a special occasion. But what is the difference between Champagne, sparkling wine made by the traditional method and much cheaper sparkling wines, such as Prosecco?

Not surprisingly, there are a number of differences between them.
All Champagne is sparkling wine, but not all sparkling wine is Champagne, even though there are people who will use the word ‘Champagne’ as a generic term to describe sparkling wine, especially when they are celebrating!

The really key thing about Champagne is that legally it can only be produced in the Champagne region of France, which is about 80 miles north-east of Paris. Sparkling wine produced outside this region will probably still be very good, but it cannot be called Champagne.

Champagne can legally be made from just three varieties of grape grown in this region – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. And it must be aged for a minimum of 18 months. Some Champagnes are aged in the bottle for up to 10 years before they are sold.

T he bubbles in Champagne come from the secondary fermentation process. The primary fermentation process converts the juice from the grapes to still wine. The still wine is then put into bottles, with a combination of sugar and yeast. That is where the magic happens, and the secondary fermentation process occurs. Carbonisation develops under high pressure, giving Champagne its characteristic fine, persistent bubbles.

Small bubbles are a sign of a high-quality wine. The best quality sparkling wines, including Champagne, will have a constant path of bubbles travelling from the bottom of the glass to the top.

A vintage Champagne is one where all the grapes were from one harvest. It will have the date it was made on the bottle. A non-vintage Champagne will have NV on the bottle and is made from grapes harvested over more than one year. Being non-vintage doesn’t mean it won’t taste as good!

A big difference between Champagne and the other sparkling wines is of course the price. Champagne is more expensive because the production process is more labour intensive. But it is also viewed as a luxury product, meaning people are willing to pay more for it.

Prosecco isn’t ‘cheap Champagne’. It is an entirely different wine, made in a different way. But, like Champagne, it is made in a specific geographical area – Veneto in the Valdobbiadene region of Italy. Although the growing popularity of Prosecco means this area has expanded significantly in recent years!

Prosecco is made with 80% Glera grapes. It is much lighter and sweeter than Champagne.

The other big difference between Champagne and Prosecco is the way in which it is made. Prosecco is made using a more affordable method, called the tank method. The still wine is put in a large, stainless steel tank to ferment. The sugar and yeast are added to the tank, which causes the liquid to carbonate, so the wine is already sparkling when it is bottled.

Unlike Champagne, Prosecco is designed to consume young – not to ferment in the bottle for years. It has lighter, frothier bubbles, which don’t last as long as Champagne bubbles.

Other regions have their own sparkling wines, which all share some differences and some similarities with both Champagne and Prosecco.

Champagne isn’t the only French sparkling wine. Sparkling wine made outside the Champagne region is Cremant. Cremant uses the same production method as Champagne – sometimes called the ‘method champenoise’. Cremant’s secondary fermentation also takes place in the bottle, although it typically has less atmospheric pressure, so its bubbles lack the pop of Champagne.

Even though it uses the same process, Cremant is cheaper because it is made outside the Champagne region. Unlike Champagne, it is made from a much wider range of grapes, including Semillon, Sauvignon, Pinot Gris and Chenin Blanc.

Spain’s Cava is made in many different styles. It goes through the same production process as Champagne, but uses a wider variety of grapes, including Macabeo, Chardonnay, Trepat, Monastrell and Pinot Noir.

Sekt is the sparling wine of Austria and Germany. Like Prosecco, it is made using the tank method. And like Cava, it is made from a big range of grapes, including Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Elbling and Pinot Noir.

Is it possible to make English sparkling wine? It is! Here at Three Choirs Vineyard, we have our Classic Cuvee, which is a traditional bottle fermented English sparkling wine. Fermented at 16°c in stainless steel tanks, it is everything you would expect of a superior sparkling wine.

There are plenty of differences and plenty of similarities between Champagne, Prosecco and other sparkling wines. The good news is that the range gives wine drinkers a lot of choice, so you can choose the right wine for the particular occasion or your budget at the time.

The dangers of pairing wine to food

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Pairing wine with food is all about finding the perfect combination. The wine and the food together should enhance your dining experience.

There are lots of books and apps out there ready to tell you what you should and shouldn’t be drinking with a particular meal. There is no harm in reading them and taking the advice they offer, but if you don’t agree with the advice, that is absolutely fine.

It is all too easy to get wrapped up in ‘the rules’, but everyone should be free to make their own choices based on their own personal tastes, without feeling that they are in some way wrong. Otherwise, something which should be a pleasure becomes a stressful situation.

There is a myth that to enjoy wine, you should be able to ‘understand’ it. That takes years of experience, which most people don’t have. The good news is, it’s not actually necessary to understand wine on any sort of deep level. The only thing you should understand about wine is enjoyment.

By tasting lots of wines and combining them with lots of foods, you will come to understand the really important thing – which wine is best for you.

Pairing wine and food

If you are confused about food and wine combinations, speak to us here at Three Choirs Vineyard or at a wine shop rather than the supermarket for some advice to get you started. Tell them your budget and what you are planning to cook and they will be able to come up with some suggestions.

This will give you ideas to use in future, as you start to understand the right pairings for you and the people you are cooking for.

Food tends to affect the taste of the wine more than the wine affects the taste of the food.

If the food is sweet, the wine might taste more bitter, more acid, less fruity and less sweet. If the food is salty, the wine will taste less bitter, more fruity and less acid. If the dish is acidic, the wine will taste less bitter, less acid, more fruity and softer.

There are some general rules that many people follow, which seem to work well. In short, full-bodied wines tend to go well with full-flavoured dishes, while lighter wines with less alcohol tend to complement food with more subtle flavours.

Some of these basic rules are:

Salty foods, such as fish, work well with white wines. Champagne and sparkling wines also complement seafood.
Spicy foods can be overwhelming with some wines, but a sweet white wine can help reduce the heat of the food. Others might prefer a fruity red wine with a spicy curry.
Red meats work well with red wine, while white meats, such as chicken, tend to work better with white wine, including sparkling wines.
Sweet foods should be paired with a wine which tastes sweeter than the food, or the wine will be overwhelmed by the food and lose its flavour.

No rights or wrongs

The danger with food and wine pairings is that there is so much information out there, that it can become overwhelming and take all the pleasure out of drinking wine.

Enjoying wine with dinner should be one of life’s pleasures and the feeling that you’re drinking the ‘wrong’ wine can take away some of that pleasure. But there are no rights or wrongs, and nobody should judge you for your choices. If you prefer a white wine, there is no reason why you can’t drink it with red meat.

A wine you love combined with food you love will generally taste amazing. But that might just be because it’s good food and good wine, not that it is some magical combination which is greater than the sum of its parts.

Sometimes you might pair a wine and food which aren’t the right combination for you. That isn’t a great problem, because you will know not to pair them again in future, and you can continue to experiment with better combinations.

Variable factors

When you drink wine, there’s lots of factors going on which influence how you personally taste that wine. And that will be different for everyone.

There are lots of variables which influence how we each perceive a wine. These range from how well rested and hydrated you are to what you ate or drank before the first sip of wine, what kind of emotional state you are in and even the influence of knowing the price of the wine. And that is before we take into account that everyone tastes things slightly differently.

A sour tasting meal will taste much sourer for some people than for others. So, a wine recommended to pair perfectly with that meal will taste great for some people but may taste unpleasant for others. That means even an absolute sure-fire combination of food and wine will still be a ‘failure’ for some people because there are just too many variables to take into account.

When it comes to pairing wine to food, there is no ‘wrong’. There is no shame in choosing a combination which isn’t recommended by the experts or that your friends and family don’t think is right. The only important thing is to enjoy the food and to enjoy the wine.

If you choose food you like and wine you like, you can’t go wrong. You can take and follow advice from books or apps or from a waiter in a restaurant, but you shouldn’t expect it to be something more magical than it actually is.

And if you do choose a wine which really doesn’t work at all with what you’re eating, simply put the cork back in and put it away in the fridge to enjoy tomorrow on its own or with a different meal! What is so bad about that?

The danger of pairing wine to food is that pursuing the perfect combination takes away some of the joy of just eating and drinking. The truth is that there is always more than one right combination of food and wine. In fact, there are generally many bottles of wine that are right for a particular dish and very few that are wrong.
And if you’re drinking a wine you like with food you enjoy, but the combination isn’t perfect, does it really matter? You are still enjoying good food and good wine, and that is a win in most people’s eyes.

Does the vintage of the wine matter?

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 09:00:00 GMT

When you are picking up a bottle (or two!) of wine at the wine shop or supermarket, does that date on the label mean anything? How important is it to the average wine drinker?

The date on the label – the wine’s vintage – represents the year in which the grapes used to make that wine were harvested. But is there more to it than that? What is a good or bad vintage? Should it influence what we buy?

What is vintage?

A vintage wine gives you a specific experience of a wine region’s produce in a single year, taking into account the weather and growing conditions that year.

So a wine doesn’t have to be of a particular age to be classed as a good vintage, but the weather does need to have been just right in that particular year to allow the grapes to ripen to their full potential. The grape growing season in the northern hemisphere is from April to October, so the conditions in spring, summer and autumn are all essential for the grapes’ growth.

The quality and taste of a wine can be affected by its vintage. Just as with all crops, there are years in which all the conditions are perfect for harvesting grapes and years when they are very far from perfect. It is due to variations in weather that some vintages might be labelled as good, and others labelled as bad.

For example, if the weather in a particular year is dry, hot during the day and cool at night, there’s a good chance that the crops will be abundant and the grapes will be of a high quality – ripe and delicious. These grapes are likely to lead to a good vintage.

But if the growing season is rainy and humid or there is a frost before the harvest, there is likely to be a lower yield of grapes and the grapes won’t be as ripe and delicious, potentially leading to a vintage which isn’t as good.

The two key factors for a good vintage are sunshine and growing season conditions. A good amount of sun will ensure the consistency of the wine’s signature flavour – a balance between acidity, sweetness and tannin. Too little sun will slow grape maturity, especially if combined with too much rain, and can also cause imbalanced aromas, vine rot and even disease.

Vintage makes more of a difference in wine growing regions with more unpredictable weather. Californian, Southern European and Australian wines tend to be more consistent from year to year because their climates are more consistent. In these areas, there is less likely to be a good vintage and a bad vintage, and the vintage year loses much of its relevance. But the climate can be far more predictable in the UK and Northern Europe, meaning there can be more variation between vintages from one year to the next.

Personal choice

Vintages certainly matter to collectors buying high-end bottles of wine as an investment and hoping to double or triple what they paid for it. But that isn’t the reality for 99.9% of wine drinkers. Most wine drinkers are just looking for a nice wine for dinner and, while the taste may vary a bit from one year to the next, the vintage isn’t a reason to choose or reject one bottle over another.

Vintage certainly matters less in the case of cheaper wines produced on an industrial scale for customers who care about price more than quality. For these wines, the levels of alcohol, sugar, acidity and PH are manipulated to create a consistent taste with a minimum of variation from year to year.

Your own tastes and what you want to use the wine for are actually very important considerations when thinking about whether vintage matters. Some people just prefer the taste of lighter, cheaper wines. And if you’re buying champagne for a party, it is a waste of money to splash out on vintage champagne when your guests are only interested in having a good time and really don’t mind what they are drinking!

You might think an older vintage is better than a newer one, but that isn’t always the case. Some wines are better drunk soon after release, while others taste better if they are a little older. For white and rose wines, they are often best enjoyed the same year as the label, or just a year later. Cheaper reds will last slightly longer. If you are spending slightly more, an earlier vintage might be more to your tastes.

Not all wines even have a vintage. Non-vintage wines are made by blending grapes from more than one year. These wines won’t have a year printed on the label, as they are made from two, three or even more harvests. This generally results in a more consistent taste and isn’t just for cheap wine. Champagne producers, for example, have a signature taste that they stick to. They may not be able to produce this consistency from a single harvest, so blend grapes from more than one year to achieve the signature taste they are aiming for.

The vintage of a wine is very important to a collector, or someone who is looking to sell it on to make a profit. But does the vintage of the wine really matter to the everyday wine drinker? For the vast majority of people, it really doesn’t matter at all, especially where they are paying under £20 for a bottle and buying it to drink immediately.

Most importantly, wine is there to be enjoyed – whatever the vintage.

What is the perfect harvest on a vineyard?

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 12:41:48 GMT

Harvest on a vineyard is a magical time. It is the end of a year of growing and the start of the winemaking cycle.

Harvest will happen every year, whatever the weather. The harvest season here at Three Choirs Vineyard usually starts in September. Although, as it is dependent on the right weather conditions throughout the growing season, there is no guarantee when it will actually begin! Harvest then goes through October.

There are definitely some harvests which are better than others. So, what makes the perfect harvest on a vineyard?

The key thing is always to pick the grapes at the right time – not too early and not too late. Grapes which are picked too soon can lack the flavour, richness and complexity we value in our wines. But overripe grapes can add too much sugar and therefore too much alcohol to the wine.

The right time will vary from year to year, and we have to use all of our experience to make the right decisions. Throughout the growing season, vineyards monitor the grapes carefully until the ideal level of sugar and acidity is reached for a particular wine.

Watching the weather

Harvesting grapes at the right time is a great skill, then a sense of urgency is needed to get them in as quickly as possible, before they become overripe or get damaged by unseasonal weather.

As harvest approaches, we check the vines regularly and taste the grapes frequently. Are the leaves still green or are they starting to yellow? Is the fruit still hard and crunchy or is it starting to soften?

Watching the weather forecast very carefully is definitely part of the job! Long periods of warm weather mean the grapes will ripen more quickly than usual, while cooler than average temperatures might slow things down.

If the grapes are very nearly ready for harvesting and we know extreme weather is on the way – whether an early frost or a late heatwave – it might be wiser to pick straightaway rather than risk the effects of the weather on the fruit.

Experienced pickers

A perfect harvest is carried out by hand by experienced pickers. The weather conditions could be ideal, but if the staff don’t pick the right grapes in a timely manner, it won’t be a perfect harvest. Great staff who know what they’re doing and enjoy their job really make a difference when it comes to a good harvest.

We hope our vines don’t have diseased or under-ripe grapes, but it is inevitable there will be a few. A perfect harvest would have an absolute minimum of substandard grapes on the vine and pickers who are experienced enough to only pick the healthy bunches. The key is to train staff well and keep them motivated.

Wasps and birds can be a problem if they get to the vines before we do. A perfect harvest is one where wasps and birds don’t eat the fruit, but keeping them away is easier said than done. Unfortunately, eating the grapes is exactly what nature intends birds to do to spread the seeds! Multiple traps might work to stop wasps, but some years there are just more wasps than other years.

A bumper year

According to WineGB, 2023 was Great Britain’s biggest-ever grape harvest – making it a near perfect year for British wine.

Together, Britain’s vineyards produced enough wine for 20 million to 22 million bottles – 50% higher than 2018, the previous record year.

Even though many of us found the summer disappointingly damp and chilly, the conditions throughout the year proved to be perfect for wine production. Very little spring frost, perfect flowering weather in June, a wet and dull July and August and very warm spells in September and October all combined to create a near perfect grape harvest.

With climate change, who knows if we will get more summers like 2023 or if it was a one-off? But combining those very specific weather conditions with the skills of our growers and pickers will add up to a perfect harvest.

Is climate change affecting vineyards?

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 09:00:04 GMT

Climate change is affecting the climate all over the world

With extremes of heat, wildfires and floods becoming increasingly normal. Where once the climate in an area was reasonably predictable, now it is becoming unpredictable, with crops failing due to the extremes of weather.
Wine may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the many effects of climate change, but inevitably it is affecting vineyards all over the world.

A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that if temperatures rise by just two degrees Celsius, viable wine-growing regions around the world could shrink by more than half.

Wildfires and warmer temperatures can dramatically change the flavour of wine, whose quality and identity depends on the delicate balance of the grapes and the conditions they're grown in. Increasingly, climate change is robbing wines of their defining flavours and even entirely ruining vintages.

Weather extremes can kill even the hardiest vines, but much of the threat from climate change is down to chemical changes in the grapes themselves.

Climate and wine have always been closely linked. Changes in temperature affect the ripeness of grapes, leading to differences between sweet and acidic flavours. That is what we mean when we say wine is “a good vintage”. The ingredients may be the same as last year and the year before, but sometimes the elements combine in exactly the right way to produce the very best wine.

On the other hand, the quality of the wine can be adversely affected by too much rain or not enough, or temperatures that are too high or too low.

Wine quality is down to achieving the right balance between sugar, acid and secondary compounds in the grapes. When a region's climate changes, it can disrupt the delicate balance of the sugar, acid and secondary compounds by changing the rate at which they develop.

Sugar builds up in the grapes as vines photosynthesise, and acid breaks down as the grapes ripen. Secondary compounds - chemicals which aren’t essential to the plant's core metabolism - accumulate over the season. Some of these secondary compounds give the grapes their colour, while others contribute to the flavour of the wine, but they all have an important role to play.

At warmer temperatures, ripening of the grapes speeds up, leading to them becoming much sweeter than normal, which in turn leads to higher alcohol content in the wine. Most consumers aren’t looking for a higher alcohol content in their wine. In addition, a rise in alcohol is accompanied by a drop in acidity. Acidity gives the wine a fresh fruitiness, as well as ensuring it will last for years in the cellar.

It might seem that the obvious answer to combating climate change is just to harvest grapes earlier, before they turn too sweet. But those secondary compounds are still important, because they create the layered aromas key to quality wines. Harvesting earlier will means these compounds haven’t fully developed. But giving the secondary compounds time to develop means grapes become over ripe and overly sweet.

Getting the right balance is a tough decision for producers to make.

Wine around the world

In warm wine producing regions, such as Southern France, California and Australia, the gradual change in the seasons allows grapes to ripen fully, losing more natural acidity to produce sweeter, fruitier flavours.

The sudden shift in temperature from summer to autumn in the UK, as well as other colder wine producing regions, like Northern France and South Africa, produces more tart and acidic wines.

Vineyards across the world are reliant on their region’s individual and predictable climate to produce their characteristic flavours, which is why changes in temperature and rainfall have a big impact on wine production.
Grapes are incredibly sensitive crops, which are affected by the slightest changes in temperature and moisture. Vineyards need a fine balance of rainfall and warmth (between 12 and 22 degrees Celsius during the growing season) to produce quality wine.

Climate change brings hotter summers, warmer winters, unpredictable rainfall and sudden frosts – all of which change the wine a vineyard produces.

As the climate has changed, the issue for wine producers is no longer how to ripen grapes fully, but how to prevent overripening.

Wine growing regions may see a change to their flavours due:

• Warmer climates causing overly ripe grapes
• Drier conditions affecting growth
• Colder temperatures destroying vines

This has caused many growers in traditional warmer wine producing regions to change their thinking.
In France in 2022, some vineyards lost as much as half of their annual production due to wildfires and frost. And in 2021, the country saw its smallest harvest since 1957, costing the industry around £1.65 billion in sales. One vineyard in Champagne produced nothing at all because of too much rain and a heatwave, when normally it would produce up to 50,000 bottles.

And in California in 2020, wildfires in the wine growing region of Napa Valley, meant many growers were unsure whether there was even any point in harvesting their grapes. In the end, 8% of grapes in the region were left on the vines to rot.

Here in England in particular, it’s not all bad news. With the weather warmer than it was a generation ago, more English vineyards are thriving. Northern Germany and even Finland have been able to start producing wine, following in England’s footsteps as producers of fine wine. Scotland and Denmark too have been able to grow grapes in recent years, something which wouldn’t have been possible even 10 or 15 years ago.

Pinot Noir grapes are grown all over the world, mainly in cooler climates. Temperature rises and decreased rain caused by climate change will limit the production of Pinot Noir grapes in warmer countries, such as Italy.
Vineyards in England, Germany and Switzerland will have the ideal climate for Pinot Noir grapes. European growers of Pinot Noir may look to countries like Finland and Liechtenstein to produce their wine in the future, as these areas will have the ideal climate for the grape variety.

Burgundy in France, to the south east of Paris, is one the best known wine growing regions. It is a cool-warm area, and its vineyards are very vulnerable to extreme weather. One late frost or bad storm can ruin an entire harvest.

Burgundy is one of the most at-risk wine producing regions in the world, with climate change threatening Burgundy wine as it is known today. Severe heat and reduced rain will cause problems of over-ripening and water stress, while more frequent and earlier frosts and hail will cause further problems.

Wildfires around the world have been one of the more dramatic effects of climate change in recent years. The obvious result of these fires is that they destroy vines. But they can affect wine in another way too - smoke from wildfires can also ruin grapes up to 100 miles away, making the wine taste different, at best, and in some cases, making it undrinkable.

Seeking a solution

In pursuit of the best sites, and to counter the effects of climate change, wine producers are having to further move north in the Northern Hemisphere, and further south in the Southern.

In new plantings in the warmer regions, growers do as much as they can to protect grapes from the afternoon sun, when the heat and light are at their most intense. As well as moving further north, some producers are now growing vines at higher altitudes – once considered to be impossible for producing grapes.

At higher altitudes, peak temperatures may not be much cooler than at lower altitudes, but periods of intense heat are shorter and night time temperatures are colder. The bigger difference in temperature over the course of a day helps grapes to ripen more gradually than at lower altitudes, where temperatures are more stable.

In addition, some winemakers are looking for vineyards that face north, in contrast to always orientating vineyards to face south in the past, to minimise the hottest afternoon sun reaching the vines.

But for family estates and well-established vineyards, such changes aren’t usually possible. In these situations, growers may be forced to consider changing the essence of what they have grown and produced historically - sometimes for centuries. They may need to stop growing grapes which have long been associated with their region, in favour of alternatives which are more appropriate for the changing climate.

In Bordeaux, where producers may only use certain grapes permitted by the appellation authorities, seven new grape varieties – four red and three white - have been selected for experiments to find out whether they can be used to offset the effects of climate change.

England looks set to be one of the countries that benefits most from climate change when it comes to wine production. Warmer, drier summers have already opened new doors for the winemaking industry in southern England.

Thirty years ago, nobody had ever heard of English sparkling wine, although we planted our first vines here at Three Choirs Vineyard 50 years ago. As the climate has warmed, a world-class sparkling wine industry has started in England, with new vineyards being planted all the time, particularly along the southern coast.

What happens on a vineyard in winter?

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 09:00:00 GMT

A vineyard is a riot of colour and activity all through the spring, summer and autumn, with the harvest the most exciting time of year.

But when the harvest is over and the leaves have all fallen from the vines, does the vineyard rest for the winter?
After the grapes have all been picked, they will ferment in the vinery. And the grapevines aren’t hibernating. They might look still and peaceful covered in frost or snow, but vineyards in winter are still very much alive. The winter is an essential time of year for the vines to recover, mature and prepare again for another year of producing fantastic grapes.

The plants have some critical internal work to do to get ready for the season ahead and the vineyard team has work to do too. Everything must be prepared for spring, which is just around the corner.

Growth above the ground has stopped for the year, but growth below the ground continues. With nutrients scarce, the vines expand their root systems so that they can soak up as many nutrients from the soil as possible. These nutrients give the vines a head start on the next growing cycle.

The vines are also cutting off their own water supply. Because if there is too much water inside a vine’s plant cell tissue, it can freeze and damage the vine – and most importantly, any future harvests. So grapevines protect themselves by stopping their water intake and transferring water out of their cells.

During the winter, the grapevines store carbohydrates in their trunks. This is what they use to grow new shoots and leaves in the spring. And the vineyard team helps the process along through pruning.

Pruning is an essential job in winter. It is carried out by hand, by skilled workers who understand the vines and know which are the right shoots to prune. As they prune, they assess the health of each plant and each shoot. Removing any infected or damaged shoots will help preserve the life of the vine and the future of the grapes.
The older the plants get, the better the quality of grapes produced, so vineyard teams will always do everything they can to protect the plant and extend its life.

But they don’t just prune unhealthy shoots, they also prune healthy ones, because too many shoots can mean too many grapes and a lower quality of grape.

Our team members walk along the vines and use their experience to keep the most desirable canes, so the vines can convert all their stored energy into these shoots – a major part of determining the quality of the fruit. The canes are cut to leave a precise number of buds, from which the grapes will develop.

As long as the weather doesn’t intervene too badly (spring frosts are the most dangerous for our vines, as they can damage the shoots and lead to no crops), the decisions taken at pruning time will determine the yield of each vine.

Winter is also a time to refresh and rejuvenate the soil. Because great wine doesn’t come from poor quality soil.
Compost can be added to the soil, to restore the nutrients which the roots of the vines are crying out for. This will lead to greener leaves, fewer nutrient deficiencies and healthier plants all year round. Most importantly, this leads to high quality, great tasting wine!

There is a lot of hard work which goes into producing good quality wine, which continues throughout the year, even when it is freezing outside. The next time you are enjoying a glass of wine in front of the fire on a winter’s day, take a moment to reflect on the dedicated team out pruning in the cold and the labour of love that goes into getting that wine into your glass.

Why stay on a vineyard in winter?

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 10:53:46 GMT

A vineyard in winter is a very different place to a vineyard in summer.

The harvest is complete, the crop has been picked and is fermenting in the winery, while the vines rest in preparation for the spring ahead.

And while the vines sleep for the night, so can you. Wine always tastes at its very best at its source. Drinking wine as you gaze at the vines where it grew, makes it an extra special experience. Imagine enjoying your wine and a bite to eat in our Brasserie, serving locally sourced tapas, before heading off to enjoy a deep sleep right in the heart of the vineyard.

We have some wonderful guest accommodation here at Three Choirs Vineyard – our beautiful Vineyard View bedrooms and Oak and Cedar, our luxury Vineyard Lodges. Our rooms overlook the vine-clad valleys, and our lodges are perfect for those looking to get closer to nature.

Our accommodation is open all year round and the seasons all have something different and unique to offer visitors. Why choose to stay in winter?

Start the day with coffee on the terrace in the crisp winter air or choose to stay in the warmth and luxury of your room.

While you might opt to spend your entire break relaxing on the vineyard, you might also use it as a base to explore the area more widely. Three Choirs Vineyard is close to the Forest of Dean and the Cotswolds, and is perfect for a short break, a romantic retreat or a quiet weekend away from it all.

The views

Of course, the vineyard looks beautiful in summer, but there is something very special about the view in winter, especially on a crisp, frosty morning.

With the leaves all gone, your views over the vineyard and beyond are uninterrupted. It is a different scene to the lush, leafy vines of summer, but no less stunning.

The weather

When it’s cold outside, you can wrap up warm for a walk or just stay inside your cosy accommodation and make the most of the peace and quiet.

And while wine tasting on a hot, sunny afternoon sounds tempting, what about enjoying a warming glass of red as the sun sets on a chilly winter’s day?

Less busy

Not everyone realises how beautiful a vineyard is in winter, so if you book a winter break, you will be lucky enough to enjoy a quieter vineyard. With less staff working and less visitors, that extra space will be yours to savour in peace.

It's cheaper

If you’re looking for a quiet getaway and aren’t too worried about the weather, it is slightly cheaper to stay at the vineyard in winter. And you can still get to experience wine tasting or dine at the Brasserie, if you choose to, at any time of year.

What are you waiting for? Book your winter break now, you won’t be disappointed.

2022 is the Perfect Year for Three Choirs to Produce a First Release Wine

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 10:53:56 GMT

2022 is the Perfect Year to Produce a First Release White Wine.

We first produced a “New Release” in the late 80’s, early 90s. It was a tongue in cheek response to the then popular Beaujolais Nouveau red wine that was always released on the Third Thursday of November. People would rush across the channel to grab their bottles and race back for parties and gatherings in the UK.

As society has become more responsible (in theory), the cost of travel along with the tightening of drink-driving and speeding regulations has seen “Beaujolais Day” diminish and disappear from the wine buff’s calendar. Yet in the 90’s and Noughties we continued to produce our New Release and have the fun of an english vineyard exporting it to France and raising a few eyebrows along the way.

But it wasn’t a gimmick from a winemaker’s perspective and the wines were generally very well received from wine writers such as Malcolm Gluck, Matthew Dukes and Oz Clark to name a few. The wines were made from the first grapes to be picked, usually some of the ripest and flavoursome, producing a crisp, fruit driven wine bursting with youthful exuberance.

We now only produce it in exceptional years when the feeling is right in the winery. An early harvest gives us so much more choice when putting the blend together. This year we are selecting the best combination from Siegerrebe, Solaris and Madeleine Angevine.

The quality is very good this year. A long hot, dry summer, followed by some gentle rain and a dry, mild picking season has produced some of the best grapes we have seen for several years. So this is the perfect year to produce our First Release White wine. A crisp, fresh, zesty wine with a hit of aromatic fruit character and an off dry, lingering finish.

First Release Availability

Our First Release will be available from Thursday 17th November, following in the tradition of the Beaujolais Nouveau release day (3rd Thursday in November) It will sell at £14.99 / bottle.

Subscribe to receive a notification of when the 2022 First Release Wine will be available to order.

Our Vineyard Accommodation Out of Season: No Frosty Reception Here

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 09:53:55 GMT

Our Vineyard Accommodation Out of Season: No Frosty Reception Here.

Swollen grey skies; crisp air; frost glittering on foliage: there’s something undeniably magical about autumn and winter at Three Choirs.

Over at the vineyard, the vines stand stark and spikey. It’s not usually what comes to mind when we think of vineyards, but it’s captivating nonetheless. The image of uniform green rows snaking across scorched earth, and jewel-like grapes dangling beneath leaves is an enduring one. But it’s not the full story.

Staying in our vineyard accommodation out of season has its own unique beauty – and function. Harvest ends in October, when the last of the autumn leaves drop. Underneath stands the bare vine, gnarled and twisted over time, like a creature from a fairytale. Once the vines are pruned, the natural contours of the land reveal themselves too. Come midwinter, we are privy to a whole new world previously hidden by growth.

Vines change in appearance several times in their annual cycle. They encounter different stages throughout the year. Each stage is of equal importance and intrigue, and understanding the vine’s journey helps us better understand wine.

Indeed, autumn and winter are the dormant seasons for the vineyard. But as desolate as things seem above ground, below, activity continues. As their trunks and branches rest for the season, the vines’ roots are hard at work. By soaking up and storing nutrients from the soil, they protect the vine from the cold and prepare it for its spring awakening.

Out of season at the vineyard is just as – if not more – enchanting as summer. Waking up to frost-dusted vines, sparkling in the early-morning sun is a remarkable experience. Often, a mist in the valley gradually rises to reveal the landscape – and you can watch it all from the cosy cocoon of your room.

Select from luxurious, wooden-framed lodges or tranquil, vineyard view rooms, both offering different views over the valley. Our spacious vineyard view rooms come with their own private, south-facing patios on which to enjoy a Three Choirs bottle.

Contact us today at 01531 890223 or through info@threechoirs.com for more information on your vineyard stays UK, or visit our vineyard accommodation page .

20% Discount on Autumn & Winter Vineyard Stays – Limited time offer!

We are pleased to offer 20% off our standard room rate, Sunday to Thursday during October, November & December.

Use promo code OCT2022 when making your booking. Be quick though… this offer ends Thursday 20th October 2022!

Sleep Among the Vines, the UK's Greatest Vineyard Stays

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 09:53:53 GMT

Experience our vineyard stays in the UK, and indulge in our selection of beautiful English wines, set within stunning countryside.

Uniform lines of green flow down a hillside and rise up again, majestically, in the distance: the vineyard exudes rustic tranquillity.

Imagine waking up to the morning mist rising from the rows of vines as the sun’s watery rays start to illuminate the valley.

Well, now you don’t have to imagine.

Our vineyard-view rooms and lodges nestled among the vines, give guests an immersive experience unmatched by any other English vineyard.

For years, our customers remarked on how lovely it must be to live and work in such a beautiful place, and to wake up to the vines! It got us thinking – why not provide visitors with a place to stay and truly relax with fine wine and great food?

When we opened our vineyard with accommodation in 2000, we were the first of a kind. Over twenty years on and our offering is still unique. We are not a bed and breakfast and not quite a hotel. Instead, our ‘restaurant with rooms’ concept allows guests to sample delicious flavours – both in our winery and our restaurant – and then retire to their luxury lodgings but a stone’s throw away.

Today, very few vineyards in England offer on-site restaurants. Ones serving freshly-prepared dishes, using locally-sourced ingredients, ready to be paired with exquisite wines, are even harder to come by.

We took great care in designing and building the right kind of vineyard accommodation for our guests. Our rooms and lodges enable visitors to switch off, unwind and experience England’s oldest vineyard in all its glory.

We invite you to enjoy a day of sampling wines from twelve different grape varieties and an evening of indulging in sumptuous, local fare. Then take a Three Choirs bottle back to your own private terrace and drink in the stunning views as the sun sinks beneath the vines.

Contact us today at 01531 890223 or through info@threechoirs.com for more information on your vineyard stays UK, or visit our vineyard accommodation page .

English Wine: A Quick Guide

Fri, 13 May 2022 09:53:51 GMT

Once upon a time, English wine making was little more than a hobby for a small number of private post-war pioneers. Today, English wine is serious business, making its mark on a world stage and widely celebrated for its incredible quality. When exactly did the English wine resurgence happen? And why?

To answer those questions and more, we’ve put together a quick guide to English wine. It features some of the wine questions we are asked here at Three Choirs Vineyards in Gloucestershire.

When did grapes come to England?

Grapes came to England with the Romans. At first, grapes were probably used as ornaments to remind Romans of life back in Italy; vines were probably grown in England a little later to satisfy the Romans thirst for wine.

But it was when the Norman nobles arrived with William the Conqueror in 1066 that viniculture really took off in England.

At the time of the compilation of the Domesday Survey in the late eleventh century, for instance, vineyards were recorded in 46 places in southern England, from East Anglia through to modern-day Somerset. Although much of this wine was being produced to be used as communion wine in monasteries and on ecclesiastical estates.

Wine production continued in England throughout the Middle Ages and into the 16th century (by the time King Henry VIIIth ascended the throne there were 139 sizeable vineyards in England and Wales). Most vineyards were connected to monasteries and with the Reformation most vineyards disappeared as the monasteries fell into disrepair.

It was not until 1936 when a man called George Ordish planted vines in Wessex and the South of England, that there was a rediscovery of English wines and winemaking. Thankfully, more pioneers followed in his footsteps and thus began a rapid increase in the number of English vineyards, with a particular boom of commercial vineyards in the 80s and 90s. The rest, as they say, is history.

How do you grow grapes in England?

As you’d expect, vines need the right conditions to thrive and grow, which is why not all regions in the UK are wine-producing. Even in the best wine growing regions, such as the south west ( where we are based ) and the south east, our cooler climate makes wine growing a challenge. England also has one of the shortest growing seasons in Europe, which means we must choose grape varieties that can fully develop flavour and complexity whilst retaining a greater level of freshness and vibrancy in our wines.

To grow vines and grapes successfully at home (which is more than possible) you need the right spot – your warmest, sunniest and most sheltered corner, ideally south-facing where the soil is well drained.

We can offer a consultancy service for those wishing to plant vines on a commercial scale.

How many vineyards are there in England?

There are approximately 164 wineries and 522 commercial vineyards in England with 150 vineyards open to the public. We are one of England’s oldest vineyards, and we’re open to the public [Saturday & Sunday] for wine tastings .

Unsurprisingly, the majority of viticulture takes place in the south, where the climate is slightly warmer and drier. Although as temperatures rise with climate change, wine making may begin to proliferate across the entire country. For now, the majority of commercial vineyards tend to be located in the southern strip of England’s coast, from Cornwall to Kent.

What are the most popular grape types grown in English vineyards?

The most popular grapes grown in English vineyards are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Bacchus, as well as Pinot Meunier and Ortega.

Here at Three Choirs Vineyard, we produce a Bacchus – it’s an elegant, dry and aromatic wine, popular with our diners and our weekend guest. We also produce a gold award-winning classic sparkling wine, Classic Cuvee n/v, shown on the left, made to traditional methods and to exceptional quality.

Interestingly, sparkling wine still makes up the lion’s share of English wines being produced per year. Still white wine comes in at second, whilst the remaining come from red wines or rosé wine.

We produce two red wines and one rosé wines at our Gloucestershire vineyard: a Ravens Hill , a Pinot Noir Precoce and a Rosé .

We also have a number of white wines: Siegerrebe , Coleridge Hill and Willowbrook 2018 .

Where can I taste English Wine in the UK?

With nearly 150 English vineyards open to visitors, it might be hard to decide where to go to taste English wine in the UK.

At Three Choirs Vineyards not only can you enjoy tasting our English wines in the beautiful, rolling Cotswolds’ countryside, you can also stay amongst our vines overnight.

On site, we have Luxury Vineyard Lodges and Vineyard View Rooms for you to choose from, plus a Brasserie serving the best local food paired perfectly with our homegrown wines. We promise, tasting English wine here, with us, will be a wine experience you’ll never forget.

5 UK Vineyards with Rooms to visit in 2020

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 10:53:50 GMT

Making your 2020 holiday plans? Would you like them to involve wine? Then we’ve good news: France no longer has the upper hand on wine holidays.

With English wine now holding its own on a world stage, many UK vineyards (including our own here in Gloucestershire) now have vineyard rooms you can stay in overnight. So you can turn your English vineyard tour and tasting into a proper mini wine break, without worrying about the drive home.

Here are 5 UK vineyards with rooms you can visit in 2020 and, of course, if you fancy a wine tasting weekend in Gloucestershire, then please get in touch – we’ll be happy to arrange it for you.

Polgoon Vineyard, Penzance, Cornwall

Polgoon is a family-run vineyard on the edge of Penzance in Cornwall and is dedicated to producing a range of artisan Cornish wines, juices and ciders. It runs Tours and tastings throughout the year where you can learn about the cultivation and wine creation process. If you want to stay overnight, Polgoon Vineyard has its own on-site 3-bedroom holiday cottage with a hot tub to rent throughout the year.

Facilities and Amenities

Free Parking
Sleeps 6
WiFi
Restaurant
Tours and Tastings

Ryedale Vineyards, York, North Yorkshire

You’ll find Ryedale Vineyards at the foot of the North Yorkshire Wolds. It is, currently, England’s most northerly commercial vineyard producing red, white, and sparkling wines along with cider and apple juice. This 6-acre vineyard runs informal tours and tasting between April and October and should you wish to stay, you can do so in one of the two luxurious rooms in the vineyard B&B farmhouse.

Facilities and Amenities

Free Parking
B&B
Sleeps 2
WiFi
Tours and Tastings

Adgestone Vineyard, Sandown, Isle of White

Adgestone Vineyard sits on the east of the Isle of White, on the edge of Brading Down, and grows a variety of vines on its chalky slopes, including Seyval Blanc and Regent. This family-run UK vineyard provides tours of the vines and the cellars, along with wine tastings, and has a small shop and a cafe. For overnight guests, there are B&Bs and holiday cottages nearby that are available to rent.

Facilities and Amenities

Free Parking
Nearby B&Bs and Cottages
Tours and Tastings

Llanerch Vineyard, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales

Head just 20 minutes outside of Cardiff and you’ll find Llanerch Vineyard in the Welsh countryside. This English vineyard has produced award-winning wines since the first vines were planted in 1986. In 2019, Llanerch Vineyard was the first UK vineyard to open up a dedicated hotel. Guest can choose from 36 stylish rooms, including a luxurious suite, for a memorable wine holiday.

Facilities and Amenities

Free Parking
Twin, doubles or suite
Restaurant
WiFi
Tours and Tastings

Three Choirs Vineyards, Newent, Gloucestershire

Three Choirs Vineyards is one of England’s oldest vineyards, rolling across 75 acres of south-facing slopes in Gloucestershire. As well as growing award-winning English wines, we’re home to a popular Brasserie restaurant and regularly run vineyard tours and tastings. We also have luxury accommodation onsite for you to stay in: our Luxury Vineyard Lodges and Vineyard View Rooms.

Facilities and Amenities

Free Parking
B&B lodges and rooms
Sleeps 2
WiFi
Brasserie restaurant
Tours and Tastings

Your Christmas Wine Menu - What Wines to Serve This Christmas

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 10:53:49 GMT

With Christmas encroaching, you may be starting to think about what Christmas wine to stock up on this year to keep your guests in the festive spirit. We believe that the best wine pairing really comes down to one thing: personal preference.

If you’d like to open a mature bottle you’ve been saving for a special occasion, then there really is no better time to share it with your family than Christmas. If you want to drink a white wine with your Christmas turkey, rather than the more traditional red, then that’s entirely up to you. There really is no right and wrong when it comes to enjoying Christmas wine over the festive season (at least, not in our rulebook).

The wine you serve your guests should similarly be a stress-free experience. If you’re not sure what wines they like, why not ask them before the big day rather than guessing? Of course, if you do want some expert guidance, then your local wine merchant should be able to give you some insightful wine pairing recommendations.

Naturally, we are always here to lend a helping hand when choosing the best wine for your Christmas dinner and for any other festivities you have planned – simply get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

For now, here is the Christmas wine menu that our wine expert, Thomas, will be serving this year – to help give you some ideas.

Christmas Day Wines – Our Wine Pairing Suggestions

Wine tasting experience: How to avoid disappointment

Tue, 05 Nov 2019 10:53:48 GMT

As you’d expect, we’ve been on our fair share of wine tasting over the years as professional wine producers! And we think it’s fair to say that not all wine tasting experiences are created equal.

Whilst many of the wine tasting experiences out there are excellently run and professionally curated, there are others that may not be to everyone’s palate.

The fact is, multiple places offer wine tasting these days: from wine merchants to gastro pubs to gift box experiences. So, naturally, it can be hard to decide on the right experience for you or your loved one.

Our criteria for judging a good wine tasting is to first look at the experience itself, and ask a few pertinent questions, then consider who you’re booking it for and see if there is a match. To help, here are some things to consider before deciding on a wine tasting – they could easily be the difference between a great wine tasting experience or sour grapes.

1. Who is running the wine tasting?

Every wine tasting experience depends largely on the skills set of the individuals running it. So find out who will be guiding the tasting and what their professional experience is before committing your money.

2. What wines will be offered?

Check the line-up of wines you’ll be offered – especially if, for example, you’re interested in learning more about English wines or wines from a particular region. Similarly, if a loved one only likes sweet wines, they may not appreciate a tasting experience biased towards dry wines.

3. How many wines will you try?

At a good wine tasting you can expect to try multiple wines. However, if it’s too many, it’s difficult to judge them effectively. Of course, if you’re more interested in drinking the wines than evaluating them, check there’s accommodation nearby or, at the very least, public transport!

4. Where will the wine tasting experience be held?

Where your tasting is held will affect the quality of the experience and the wines you taste! For example, noisy and crowded rooms can make it difficult to concentrate properly. Strong smells can also make it hard to get a sense of the wine’s aroma. A good tasting will try to keep the environment as neutral as possible to help you get the most out of the wines. If you can find one at a vineyard itself, it’s even more special!

5. What will you bring back home with you after the tasting?

It may sound like a funny question to ask, but tastings are all about making memories – that’s why wine tasting experiences make great gifts. So if you can go home with a piece of the experience, a bottle of your choice for example, then you can share the whole event with others and create even more memories.

If you’d like any more information about our wine tasting experiences here at Three Choirs Vineyard, please do get in touch ; we’re always happy to help.

A beginners' guide to wine terminology: Eight essential wine tasting terms

Mon, 04 Nov 2019 10:49:04 GMT

The special terminology associated with wine tasting can seem baffling to beginners. But although it might sound like wine experts are speaking a different language, mastering the basic wine tasting terms doesn’t have to be tricky.

“Do you like your wines fruity on the nose or full-bodied with good legs?”

Getting to grips with wine terminology gives you a way to describe what you do and don’t like in a wine, as well as helping you decipher wine reviews and bottle descriptions so you know what to expect if you come across more unusual grape varieties – like the Bacchus and Siegerrebe we produce here at Three Choirs Vineyards in Gloucestershire.

So to get you started, we’ve come up with eight of the most important wine tasting terms to help boost your confidence with choosing wine and make the most of a wine-tasting experience.

Eight essential wine tasting terms

1. Nose

Although it might be tempting to go straight in for a taste, take the time to swirl the wine around your glass and give it a sniff first. A wine’s nose is its aroma, and your nose is the key to picking up the subtle differences in flavour between different wines. Aromas are often split into fruity, citrus, floral, spicy, earthy and vegetal categories, and will depend on the grape variety as well as how the wine has been made and stored.

2. Body

The body of a wine is how it feels in your mouth – it can be full, medium or light and depends on how much alcohol and sugar the wine contains. One of the common analogies is to compare a wine’s body to different types of milk – so light-bodied wines would feel delicate like skimmed milk, medium-bodied wines like semi-skimmed and full-bodied wines thick like full cream milk.

3. Acidity

Acidity is the mouth-watering sharpness you get from a sucking a lemon. All wines have some level of acidity, but it’s usually higher in white wines like Sauvignon Blanc.

How acidic a wine is will depend on how ripe the grapes were, with cool climates usually meaning more acidic wines. Ideally, wine-makers look to combine levels of acid and sugar to make a well-balanced wine.

4. Tannins

Tannins are what cause some wines to leave a dry taste in your mouth, and are also found in tea. They come from the skin and seeds of grapes. How ‘tannic’ a wine is depends on how long it was in contact with the skins when it was being made. So white and rosé wines have low tannins and are softer, whereas thick-skinned grape varieties, like Cabernet Sauvignon, have more tannins, making them good with rich food as they cut through any fattiness.

5. Oaky

Oaked wines have been aged in oak barrels, which influences their colour and flavour. Oak is more commonly used with red wines like our Hampshire Oak Aged Red, and it can give a smoky or spicy flavour, but it can also be used to give white wines a buttery, vanilla taste. How strong the effect is depends on how long the wine’s been in contact with the oak as well as the type of oak used – American oak gives a punchier flavour than smoother French oak.

6. Minerality

Minerality has become a popular wine-tasting term recently, and it’s sometimes described as the taste you’d get from sucking on a stone. You don’t have to try that out yourself though to recognise flavours like chalk, flint or even pencil lead in your white wines – think of it as the opposite of lush, fruity flavours.

7. Legs

If you swirl your wine around the glass, the legs (also known as the tears in France) are the streaks you can see running down the side of the glass. More legs doesn’t mean the wine is a higher quality, but it does means it’s got a higher alcohol content. The sweeter the wine the slower the legs will move down the glass.

8. Vintage

The vintage of a wine is simply the year when the grapes were picked. Most still wines come from a single year, which you’ll see marked on the bottle. But sparkling wines are often non-vintage – like our Classic Cuvee – as they’re created from a mixture of different years’ wines to create a consistent style. Though sometimes you’ll see vintage sparkling wines if there’s a particularly good year.

Wine Tours and Tastings at Three Choirs Vineyards

Now you’ve mastered these eight essential wine words, why not try them out on one of our English wine tasting experiences and tours, where our friendly, knowledgeable guides will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have.

Wine Tasting Cotswolds: 3 Must-Try Experiences

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 09:47:10 GMT

When it comes to wine, the Cotswolds has some of the best English wine tasting experiences in the UK. Why? Because this special part of Gloucestershire is home to over 10 vineyards, including our own vineyard, Three Choirs Vineyards, here in Newent.

It’s thanks to the region’s clement weather and fertile soils that so many vineyards have sprung up in this part of the world over the years. Which means there are plenty of Cotswolds wine tasting opportunities for you to enjoy if you’re exploring the Cotswolds this year. Here are 3 must-try wine experiences that you can enjoy with us at Three Choirs Vineyards.

Best for First-timers

Wine Tasting Experience | £12.50 | 45 minutes

New to wine tasting? Come along to Three Choirs Vineyards for a comprehensive and informative wine tasting tour. One of our team will give you a guided tour of the our Cotswolds vineyard and explain how our grapes are grown, harvested and bottled. You’ll also get the chance to sample four of our delicious English Wines and have the chance to stroll through the vines at your leisure soaking in the Cotswolds beauty and, hopefully, the sunshine!

Best for Foodies

Wine Tasting Tour with Lunch | £89.95 | Half day

For those who like to pair fine English wine with excellent food, take a seat in our beautiful Vineyard Brasserie . You’ll enjoy a delicious lunch for two, as well as a 45-minute guided tour of our vineyard, 4 carefully-selected English wines to taste, and a bottle of wine to take home. You’ll also be free to explore our vineyard at your leisure and get a chance to chat to our wine experts about our unique wine making process.

Best for Couples

Couples’ 1-night retreat | £135.00 Winter Special Offer | B&B in a Vineyard View Room

Celebrating an anniversary or birthday? Make it extra special with an overnight Cotswolds’ wine tasting experience at Three Choirs. Not only will you both enjoy wine tasting and a visit to our winery (where the wines are quietly fermenting in the tanks), but you’ll be able to retreat into your own peaceful room overlooking the vine-clad valley at the end of the day. We’ll then serve you breakfast in the morning in our Vineyard Brasserie – you’ll leave us refreshed, relaxed and full of memories.