October signals the end of grape harvest across Europe and historically, the Germans in their great wisdom celebrated wine for the entire month with Wien-mond (which translates as wine month).
This month we've also been celebrating the end of our harvest at Forty Hall Vineyard, with just under 12 tonnes of grapes picked by our hardy volunteers over a four week period, from mid September until mid October. That should make around 10,000 bottles of 2019 Vintage FHV wine.
Harvest is a huge task, so we were delighted to be joined by friends, family as well as friends from Beavertown Brewery, Camden Town Brewery (with a case of their aptly named Harvest Hells beers for us!) and local stockists Yardarm and Highbury Vintners, who also got stuck in! If you'd like to help harvest next year or volunteer with us throughout the year, please get in touch by emailing sheila@fortyhallvineyard.com
Harvest is one of the most symbolic times of the vineyard year and we were lucky to have photographer and filmmaker Miles Willis, with us to capture this special time in a short film which you can view here.
Our Ortega single varietal still white wine is a fitting wine to showcase during Wein-mond (wine month), as it is a German grape variety. The Ortega grape was developed in 1948 by crossing Müller-Thurgau and Siegerrebe. It favours cool-climate winegrowing areas and does exceptionally well in the UK. As Ortega grape is more adapted to a Norther European climate it is is always our first grape to ripen so harvest at Forty Hall Vineyard historically begins with this.
We were pleased with the sugar and acidity levels of this year's harvested grapes (79 Oeschle/ 8.9 g/L) as they went into the press at our wine maker Will Davenport's winery, so we have high hopes for 2019 vintage!
Do give our 2018 vintage a try, it's a delicious apperitif. Find out more and buy online here.
