Another season has finished and harvest completed this year for two west Dorset vineyards.

We are lucky to have two vineyards in the Bridport area - Furleigh Estate in Salway Ash and Bride Valley Vineyard in Litton Cheney - both producing a wonderful and delicious range of sparkling and still wine.

Bride Valley Vineyard is owned by Steven Spurrier – a big name in the wine industry – and his wife Bella. After many years in France, the couple moved to Litton Cheney, bought a farm in the village and were advised to plant a vineyard, the first harvest was picked in 2011.

Furleigh Estate is owned by Rebecca Hansford and Ian Edwards after she bought back her family farm in Salway Ash in 2004 and Ian completed a degree in wine studies. Vines were planted in 2005 and 2006 and they had their first vintage in 2009. Bride Valley has all its wines made at Furleigh Estate.

The Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Bacchus grapes have all been picked, will be turned into base wines and this year's wine can be expected on shelves ready to be sold as quick as next year or as far away as five years.

But it hasn't been a bumper harvest for the vineyards this year.

Graham Fisher, vineyard manager at Bride Valley, said: "Harvest was short this year compared to previous years – the yield was not as high. The last two years we had our largest harvests since we started. Last year we picked something like 85 tons and the year before that something similar, whereas this year we picked 24 tons, so quite a drop.

"That's down to really small bunch sizes and small berry sizes, so the average number of bunches were below 100 grams, whereas last year and the year before they were more like 150 to 200 grams."

But don't worry, this doesn't mean there is a wine shortage.

The team at Bride Valley explained that after two bumper years, this helps even things out as three good years would give so much wine.

It was also a much better year than 2012, a cold and wet year that meant nothing was picked at either vineyard.

How are the wines made?

Harvest time fluctuates each year depending on the weather and yield, but usually starts in September and can sometimes go into November. Grapes from both vineyards go to Furleigh Estate to be made into wine.

Base wines are made for Bride Valley and tasted by Mr Spurrier, who decides which should be blended to make which wines – he makes seven wines, four sparkling and three still.

Rebecca Hansford explains that grapes need to be processed the day they are picked otherwise they start to oxidise, which means pressing can go into the early hours of the morning.

She said:"When you make fizz, you make wine first and when you bottle it, you add more yeast and sugar and the yeast uses the sugar to make a little bit more alcohol and carbon dioxide. When you bottle it, it is sealed in so the carbon dioxide can't escape – it dissolves into the wine and makes bubbles. The yeast dies and it breaks down and starts to make lovely bread, brioche and toasty flavours that you will get in a good bottle of Champagne or fizz. It takes a long time, it doesn't start for a year and then we will leave it for two years and have a look, then probably leave it for another two years, so it will be four years before we put a label on it and sell it.

"Stills are made quicker, you grow the grapes this year, we bottle it next spring and it will be on the market for the summer."

How are wine grapes able to grow in England?

Furleigh Estate has around 22,000 vines and Bride Valley has around 44,000 and they have been successful in growing grapes due to the soil geology and the increasingly warm weather, due to global warming.

Graham said: "The geology in the Champagne region effectively starts on the Dorset coast. It's chalky and goes along the south coast, underneath the sea and into France and ends in Champagne. It has a very similar soil geology that we have. The weather is better than ours, that's the big difference."

Rebecca explained vines are dormant in the winter and can stand minus 22 degrees, but they need a day and night temperature over 10 degrees to start growing.

"We have that same number of degree days now as they had in Champagne in the 1970s – it's global warming," she said. "They made great Champagne in the 1970s and that's why we make really good fizz now, because our climate is warming up.

"A frost in late April, early May, after the leaves have started to come, that can affect us as those leaves can die. Because we are so close to the sea, we're very mild and we have only been frosted once since we have been here, it's quite a sheltered, warm site.

"Champagne is the most northerly wine growing region in France, it's just to the east of Paris. In a straight line, it's really not that far south from here."

Lockdown at the vineyards

Rebecca was delivering wine packages locally during lockdown, teaming up with Bothen Hill Organics who grow asparagus next to the vineyard.

She said: "They were picking this wonderful asparagus, so I was sending off two bunches of the asparagus and a bottle of wine we do that goes particularly well with asparagus. We would be doing 40 or 50 boxes a day, lots going to Cheshire and London. You can imagine people in their flats in London with no outside space, they get this green loveliness from Dorset – it was so lovely.

"I was doing the local delivery and there were places I discovered that were only in the next village, but I didn't know they were there.

"It worked really well, people were really supportive and wanted to buy local."

Bride Valley managed to set up online ordering and it went well for them. Tours and tastings really boomed this year with people wanting to get outside and only two weekends that meant tours could not be held due to the weather. They had around 250 people in for tours and tastings over the summer months.

Bride Valley Vineyard

Bride Valley makes four sparkling wines and three still wines – Brut Reserve, Rose Bella (named after Mr Spurrier's wife), Dorset Crémant, Blanc de Blancs, Dorset Chardonnay, Dorset Pinot Noir and Dorset Pinot Noir Rose.

Two of these were 'wines of necessity' according to Graham; the Dorset Crémant and the Chardonnay.

The 2015 base wines were very acidic and when this happens in France, they will hold it back and blend it with another year, making a non-vintage wine.

Graham said: "Up until then, all our wines were vintage. When 2016 came along, it was a much better year, so we did a blend of some of the juice from 2015 and some from 2016. Steven tried it again but there was still a lot of acidity. Luckily Steven has been around for a number of years and said, 'why don't we make a crémant?' The fizz masks the acidity that was there."

They applied to the European Union for permission to call it a crémant, but this was denied. They had to apply for a protected designation of origin (PDO) to make it unique to this area and were able to go back to the EU and ask to call it Dorset Crémant – it said yes. Bride Valley is the only company in the UK that makes a crémant and it is now probably its best-selling sparkling wine.

The other 'wine of necessity' is the chardonnay as there was so much chardonnay after a fantastic year in 2018.

That same year they thought they would try making a red pinot noir the "next big step for English winemakers". It was a standout year so were able to make it in 2018, but it hasn't been made since.

This year was the first year they had a pinot noir rose, which has also proved very popular.

Furleigh Estate

Furleigh Estate has a large range of sparkling ad still wines. It offers a Pinot Noir and White Pinot Noir, Classic Cuvee, Suite Cuvee, Prestige Cuvee, From the Oenotheque 09 and From the Oenotheque 10, Bacchus Dry and Bacchus Fume, Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs, Sparkling Rose, Sea Pink Rose, Tyrannosaurus Red and West Dorset Chardonnay.

Furleigh Estate donates 10p for every bottle of Tyrannosaurus Red it sells to the Jurassic Coast Trust.

Both vineyards usually offer tours and tastings – Nordic walking also at Furleigh Estate – which proved popular for Bride Valley over the summer months.

However, both are still open and selling wine during this second lockdown. Visit Furleigh Estate or Bride Valley Vineyard.

Find out more about the renowned Steven Spurrier on Bridport Nub News tomorrow.