At last the 2020 harvest is safely in – and it is stunning.
After all the hard work throughout the year the grapes have been hand-picked and pressed in the winery and the juice is beginning to ferment gently. Its the most exciting time for the winemaker when all the potential literally comes to fruition. As our 2020 harvest T-shirt says: ‘With grape power comes grape responsibility’ .
The quality of the harvest this year is absolutely sensational, but there was a relatively low yield – making the juice even more precious. We had to dodge a couple of rain showers as we picked relentlessly with no breaks – which is tough on the team but everyone was absolutely brilliant and we got through it in record time. We are so grateful to everyone, but special thanks must go to Laura, Bronwen, Marina, Max, Archie and of course Tim and Dan. The real heroes of course are the pickers who turned up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 7.30 every morning (which is the earliest that there’s enough light so you can see well enough to snip the grapes off) and picked tonnes every day. You are amazing.
As you know we at Ambriel are very cautious about declaring a vintage: we prefer not to, unless it is an absolutely outstanding year…. but this year is so … we declare 2020 a vintage year! We may all remember this year for all sorts of different reasons, but our most treasured memory will be of the grapes.
