Watching your videos am in awe of your ability to down a bottle of wine then walk miles down sometimes steep and always narrow footpaths, many descending a steep hill, in the dark! to finally reach a remote railway station just before the last train back to London (with no apparent worry there maybe a cancellation) OR sometimes camping under a hedge with only a passing bull for company, then in the early dawn returning to the remote station to catch the milk train. Tell me your secret Winemeister. Be well.
Thank you! I think it all stems from a constant desire to be outdoors. That probably has something to do with the fact home is a small London flat where I'm pretty much hemmed in on all sides by neighbours, with not particularly thick walls! So I'm never worried about failing to get home from one of these trips - I'm far more concerned by the prospect of being stuck indoors!
Another delightful video John, a pleasure to watch after a busy night on the buses. The sparkling wine looked beautiful and I could almost taste it from hearing your description of it. That vegan sushi looked delish and the cheese bites with the caramelised onion also were fantastic. Overall it’s got to be a 10 out of 10 from me and the dog was cute so it’s a 10.5 out of 10 (if that’s mathematically possible)
Thanks Seán! It was a sweet dog. If I eat when I'm out on the heath a dog will often come and find me. Some of them can be a bit pushy about it and before I know it they've snatched a mouthful of something! Whereas this guy just stood nearby and looked hopeful.
What surprised me about this vinyard was how small it seemed to be, of course you were some distance away. I guess they have other yards. You manage the chopsticks like a native, I guess you've had lots of practice. I'd be interested to know what delights the sushi tray contained. Fifth channel...... Tweedydogs?
Thanks David! A lot of English sparkling vineyards are very small - one of my favourites, Breaky Bottom, is just 6 acres, and another (East Meon) is only 1 acre! I think that's part of the magic of English sparkling, all these tiny "boutique" producers. Of course there are some which are frankly just vanity projects of a rich landowner, and they hire in contractors to do everything for them... but there are others where the owner does basically all of the tending to the vines themselves, and that level of care couldn't possibly be replicated in a large scale vineyard which has an army of paid help to do the pruning etc.
1 acre sounds very very small. I wonder what a field that size could yield, a thousand bottles? Sounds like a hobby almost. The "vendimia" (grape harvest) has started down here, I caught a snippet on the news, a good year so they say
@@davidberlanny3308 Breaky Bottom (the 6 acre one) produced about 17,000 bottles in 2018, which was their best year to date I believe. In more challenging years like 2016 that number was down to just 5,000. I think at that scale it can just about provide a living, particularly as English sparkling typically sells for at least £30 a bottle (although about £8 of that would be tax, and of course lots of other consumable costs involved - e.g. the bottles themselves). It helps that most of these smaller vineyards do a decent chunk of their sales direct to customers, either through visitors to the vineyard or via their website. For East Meon (the 1 acre one) it can't be a primary source of income for the owners. I get the sense they might possibly be retired or semi-retired, so it is perhaps a bit more like a hobby and/or a secondary income stream. Harvests in Breaky Bottom are typically in October!
Watching your videos am in awe of your ability to down a bottle of wine then walk miles down sometimes steep and always narrow footpaths, many descending a steep hill, in the dark! to finally reach a remote railway station just before the last train back to London (with no apparent worry there maybe a cancellation) OR sometimes camping under a hedge with only a passing bull for company, then in the early dawn returning to the remote station to catch the milk train. Tell me your secret Winemeister. Be well.
Thank you! I think it all stems from a constant desire to be outdoors. That probably has something to do with the fact home is a small London flat where I'm pretty much hemmed in on all sides by neighbours, with not particularly thick walls! So I'm never worried about failing to get home from one of these trips - I'm far more concerned by the prospect of being stuck indoors!
Another delightful video John, a pleasure to watch after a busy night on the buses. The sparkling wine looked beautiful and I could almost taste it from hearing your description of it. That vegan sushi looked delish and the cheese bites with the caramelised onion also were fantastic. Overall it’s got to be a 10 out of 10 from me and the dog was cute so it’s a 10.5 out of 10 (if that’s mathematically possible)
Thanks Seán! It was a sweet dog. If I eat when I'm out on the heath a dog will often come and find me. Some of them can be a bit pushy about it and before I know it they've snatched a mouthful of something! Whereas this guy just stood nearby and looked hopeful.
I'm from New England, so it's much easier for me to find Finger Lakes sparklers. I'll keep an eye out for English bubblies, though.
What surprised me about this vinyard was how small it seemed to be, of course you were some distance away. I guess they have other yards.
You manage the chopsticks like a native, I guess you've had lots of practice. I'd be interested to know what delights the sushi tray contained.
Fifth channel...... Tweedydogs?
Thanks David! A lot of English sparkling vineyards are very small - one of my favourites, Breaky Bottom, is just 6 acres, and another (East Meon) is only 1 acre! I think that's part of the magic of English sparkling, all these tiny "boutique" producers.
Of course there are some which are frankly just vanity projects of a rich landowner, and they hire in contractors to do everything for them... but there are others where the owner does basically all of the tending to the vines themselves, and that level of care couldn't possibly be replicated in a large scale vineyard which has an army of paid help to do the pruning etc.
1 acre sounds very very small. I wonder what a field that size could yield, a thousand bottles? Sounds like a hobby almost.
The "vendimia" (grape harvest) has started down here, I caught a snippet on the news, a good year so they say
@@davidberlanny3308 Breaky Bottom (the 6 acre one) produced about 17,000 bottles in 2018, which was their best year to date I believe. In more challenging years like 2016 that number was down to just 5,000. I think at that scale it can just about provide a living, particularly as English sparkling typically sells for at least £30 a bottle (although about £8 of that would be tax, and of course lots of other consumable costs involved - e.g. the bottles themselves). It helps that most of these smaller vineyards do a decent chunk of their sales direct to customers, either through visitors to the vineyard or via their website.
For East Meon (the 1 acre one) it can't be a primary source of income for the owners. I get the sense they might possibly be retired or semi-retired, so it is perhaps a bit more like a hobby and/or a secondary income stream.
Harvests in Breaky Bottom are typically in October!