Sounds a little dramatic, but I promise it’s not for long! With the foreseeable weeks consumed by harvest, I’m afraid I won’t have much time to update you all! But don’t worry, as things calm down again Through the Grapevine will come back for the next season here at Little Wold Vineyard. As the title suggests: it’s not goodbye, but a see you later. Now, aside from that we have plenty to catch up on, so I won’t mope for much longer. It’s been another winery week for me and Cam, and events on events on events over at the Tasting Room. It feels a little bit like chaos is the norm now at LWV, but after so many years, Tom, Alice and the rest of the LWV team take to this busy time like ducks to water. If the ducks had acres of grapes to look after and endless events to host.
The Colossal Clean continued this week, and as I’m writing Cam is still going in the winery to ensure that as the grapes start arriving next week we have a winery that is in tip-top condition for pressing and fermenting. As you can see in this photo below, we’ve pulled as much out as possible, giving us the rare opportunity to see just how much we’ve filled the huge space over the two years since it was constructed. This year we have three new tanks joining our collection, taking the total up from twelve to fifteen. These twenty-two-hectolitre tanks are jacketed, meaning that we can control their temperatures. While four of our current tanks also have this feature, we have yet to apply this rather nifty bit of tech in our winery. In our first year we were fortunate with the hot weather (anyone else remember the blistering heat of 2022?); however during the last season (2023), we started to experience trouble with temperatures due to the delay we had in harvesting. In waiting for the grapes to develop enough sugar to warrant picking them, we had missed the last of the mild autumnal weather. Subsequently a few tanks were too cold to initiate the fermentation process. While we were quickly able to adapt thanks to Tom and the space heater he’d been storing since our days as a marquee wedding venue (all hail the Blue Shed and its many curiosities!), we realised and understood the necessity of having the ability to control the individual temperature of the tanks. Enter: our new (jacketed) tanks, all ready for our 2024 harvest.
Our lovely volunteers returned on Tuesday in force once more! We had so many of you in fact, that we could split into two teams – Tom took several volunteers to Brantingham to strip the leaves, while Cam and I looked after a couple of volunteers in the winery, who worked on labelling some Three Cocked Hat for everyone to enjoy (as luck would have it, our cellar door is open today, meaning you can enjoy some of this red while taking in the changing of the seasons across the valley – sounds pretty idyllic to me). Angela and Janet were on team Cam and Ellie, and as Tom’s team rejoined us it was only a matter of time before we ran out of labels to use. The group then enjoyed some local cheese and crackers outside the Blue Shed in the sun, which was a bit of a change from the usual setting of the Tasting Room, but from the laughter and chatter I think it’s safe to assume that this wasn’t a problem for our lovely lot. With harvest mere days away, now is a great time to join our volunteer team! You can participate as and when you please to help us pick the grapes at our South Cave sites; after which point you can proudly stand next to our 2024 wines and tell whoever’s nearby, ‘I picked the grapes that went into that bottle of wine’. And if bragging rights aren’t enough, you’ll also be joining a host of people who have always been nothing short of wonderful and welcoming to all. Whether you join us once or for the foreseeable, being a LWV volunteer is something that stays with you.
And from labelling red to bottling white! The last of our 2023 white wine is now in bottle, awaiting labelling and resting up in preparation for making its way to your table, cellar, fridge, or wherever else you’re storing your wine. Barley Hill is an off-dry white wine, making it the ‘sweetest’ wine LWV has on offer – which is actually still pretty dry by most standards. After the thirteen hectolitres of wine had made it into bottles, Cam and I sterilised the bottling line and the now-empty tank. The labels (newly designed by Alice herself, no less) are on their way to us as we speak, a task that we’ll try to complete on any particularly rainy days. As important as harvest is, we’d rather not catch the mother of all colds just to get the grapes in quicker. This year’s Barley Hill White labels have been inspired by the medley of wildflowers we’ve seen around the farm; once a bit of a sore spot for Tom and Henry in the agri-world, the wildflowers are now a hailed addition to the land, providing biodiversity for wildlife and a radiant view during the warmer months. If you like having sneak peeks like this, I’d recommend following our Instagram and Facebook pages, where we update people with loads of behind-the-scenes fun.
Back-to-back events at the Tasting Room continue to keep Alice and the events team running at one hundred miles per hour. Although now we’re at the latter end of the season, we can start to reflect on all the incredible events we’ve hosted this year. And what better way than going through some of the reviews that have been left for us? Your reviews mean the world to us, knowing that you enjoyed your big day, or felt well-attended to while on one of our tours makes all of us (even Tom and Henry) smile like kids in a sweet shop. Because who doesn’t love to hear that people are enjoying the work they put out into the world? This first review comes from a couple after their big day, and encapsulates everything our wedding team try to do:
We want to say a huge, huge thank you to you especially Elaine and the whole LWV team. You helped us with making our dream wedding to become a reality and we honestly had the best day from start to finish! Everything was placed perfectly and we were over the moon with how everything looked. We had so many compliments about the beautiful venue, from those that hadn’t been before and even from those that had. We didn’t feel stressed at all during the whole day, everything ticked along nicely and we were just enjoying our newlywed bubble! We can’t wait to come back for a drink after our honeymoon.
When someone starts their review with a ‘huge, huge thank you’ we know we’ve done our job exactly right! Knowing the couple were able to enjoy their, ‘newlywed bubble’ (this image to me is adorable, by the way) is something that makes us want to sing across the hillsides circa Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. And not to brag, but we do have the best hospitality staff to ever exist (I can say this with confidence, having worked with some of them myself in the past!). And in case you need proof, take a read of this review:
Just a quick email to say the BIGGEST thank you to you and the whole LWV team for Monday. Everyone just went above and beyond and I am so grateful for the perfect day that we had largely down to you! I really couldn’t fault a single thing. All feedback from guests suggests the same thing and they’re all blown away by what a beautiful venue it is.
Noticed how many people consider our little corner of East Yorkshire to be beautiful? Honestly, the ego boost from this alone may leave us struggling to fit through doors for the foreseeable!! And because I believe in third time’s the charm, this last review is going to be left here to highlight the best bits of LWV events:
…just to let you know that on the 15th august holly & johns wedding was a wonderful day the venue the service and food certainly exceeded all our expectations … we couldn’t have asked for more and we can’t express our thanks enough to yourself and all the staff that served us all we have had loads of glorious comments from guests and we thank you tremendously.
I’m just going to be over here smug as anything while you hurry on over to book your next event with us.
As for our autumn/winter events, our festive garland afternoon is running out of availability; we only hold this event once a year, so if you’re keen to book on we suggest doing so as soon as possible to avoid disappointment! And for those asking about our 2025 events (I can’t believe I just typed those words out… in my mind it’s still the middle of summer and 2025 is just a whisper of a thought in the distance), Alice will be adding these events to our website mid-October time. So if you’re interested in getting a loved one or friend a space on one of our new year tours or tastings – dare I say it’d make an excellent Christmas present – keep your eyes on the website over the next couple of weeks. Lastly, as I’m unsure what time I will be returning to give you more news here, our LWV team all take a much-deserved break in the first two weeks of January, so if you need to contact us over this time please be patient, as we won’t be able to reply until we all come back to work.
And now, our last Cam on Cam of the 2024 season!! As I mentioned earlier, we’ve spent most of this week trying to clear out the winery, and after a lot of hard work from Cam and the LWV team, this is how it’s looking now – very smart if I do say so myself. It’s been so much fun writing these blogs over the last year or so, and I’m very grateful to everyone who’s been reading along. It won’t be long before I’m back again with more updates and things to ramble about, but until then here’s to another year on Little Wold Vineyard and all the amazing people who make it run!