Around the County with Quayside – Woodchester Valley Vineyard

Gloucestershire provides much more than just financial advice, and as Financial Advisers based in Gloucester, we are proud to highlight the county's diverse offerings. This event aims to showcase the region's outstanding food and drink, bringing together individuals who can benefit from networking. Attendees can enjoy relaxed conversations over a glass of gin or wine or savouring locally sourced food, drinks, and artisanal ice cream. By hosting this event, we will create new connections, facilitate the exchange of knowledge, and foster opportunities for collaboration and professional growth.

For our third round we welcomed Harriet from Woodchester Valley Vineyard- A bit about Woodchester:

• Fiona and Niall Shiner had been living in Hong Kong for 18 years when they returned to Britain to take on Niall's parents' property at Amberley. Fiona decided to plant some vines at the property following a comment by her mother-in-law that the Romans could have grown vines there! 
• The first acre of vines was planted in 2007 and Fiona threw herself into studying viticulture and learning how to drive a tractor! Despite a disastrously wet first summer, the vineyard grew well and Fiona bought a farm on the hill opposite, gradually planting more vines for still and sparkling wines. In 2016 a former farm building was converted into a winery and press area. A third vineyard site at Stonehouse was acquired bringing the total area under vine to 58 acres.
• They grow a selection of grape varieties, spread across three vineyards. The three sites have different soil profiles. The Woodchester and Amberley sites are typical of Cotswold brash - shallow soils with a high stone content overlying Oolitic limestone, particularly favourable for our Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines. These soils are very free-draining. The Stonehouse site has a higher clay content and deeper soils well-suited for their Bacchus vines. At all sites, the vines are planted on slopes which are more than gentle but fall short of sheer, facing South, East and South-West.
• They make a variety of still and sparkling wines, both white and rosé using a selection of grape varieties. The winery was established in 2016, where they were able to press the entire 2016 fruit. The four-tonne press has the ability to process the grapes for the still wines in an inert environment using nitrogen, eliminating oxygen and preventing deterioration of the flavour and aromatic potential of the wines. The wines are then fermented at low temperatures, preserving these primary flavours and aromas. They are then settled in tanks equipped with a positive nitrogen gas system that prevents any potential oxidation from ullage space. The sparkling wines are made using the traditional method, and have a minimum of two years on the lees before they are released.

Here is what Harriet had to say about the event:

“We attended the event to host a wine tasting evening for the guests, the evening was a lovely event with a very welcoming and friendly group of attendees. Everyone was in good spirits and very engaged with both the talk and the wines. A lovely response to the wines from everyone who tried them and hopefully a few more converted to both English wines and shopping locally! We'd be delighted to come back in the future if the opportunity arises.”