Spring and Summer 2013

Summer started in enjoyable fashion with a visit to Beech Hill Hotel on Windermere which put on a special Taste of Cumbria dinner featuring our fruit wines. We were impressed by the high standard of food and cooking and so are planning a repeat visit next year. We recommend you do too, but don’t forget to ask for special deals for the night! If in doubt the following menu should tempt you:

The past few weeks has seen a lot of activity at the winery. All of our 2011 wines have sold out (except elderberry wine which is matured for two years before releasing) and we have started labelling our 2012 wines for the shelves.

We have started this year’s wine production with fermentation of elderflower, rhubarb, gooseberry, blackcurrant and raspberry wines. The rhubarb produced large quantities of stems earlier in the year and the recent hot weather saw a bumper display of elderflowers.

Elderflowers being destemmed and deleafed on the winery floor!

Part harvest of rhubarb from a local Appleby supply.

The end of July saw the start of our summer art exhibition, this year opened by the Appleby Mayor, Andy Connell, and Mayoress, Caron Baines. Nineteen local, mainly professional, artists have their work on display at the winery on the theme of the Eden Valley. A list of the artists is available on our website.

Opening of Art at the Winery 2013. Photo by Karen Morley.

The renovation of our large barn continues slowly. We are attempting, in the first part of the barn, to include insulation and air tightness to near passivhaus standards. This has thrown up some interesting problems for which we hope we have found solutions. We can go into this in more detail if anyone is interested.

Earlier in the year we had to deter nesting jackdaws by sealing off all openings with temporary sheets of plywood. It was difficult as jackdaws will enter through surprisingly small gaps. However, we finally triumphed. At the same time we have managed to provide nesting places for this year’s visiting swallows and house martins.  We have decided to brighten up the appearance of the barn by allowing interested family and friends to paint some of the visible sheets of plywood. The first two sheets are finished. Daughter Deborah and grandchildren Lily-Rose and Theo painted three owls in the moonlight, while friend and artist Margaret Brown painted the winery with glass and carafe of wine in the foreground. The two works look fabulous. We are now hoping more friends and family will take up the challenge of painting the other doors and small windows.

 

Murals (dorals? portals?)

Visitors to the winery will have seen our collection of amusing wine related cards and cartoons. A recent addition is this one which recently appeared in a trade magazine: