June 2012

Our last post seems a long while ago and the reason for this is that we have been away visiting our three daughters who produced three new grandchildren in less than three months. Our total now is seven which takes some getting used to, but now we have to turn our attention to the winery.

Our wines have been selling well and the beetroot wine made last autumn all sold very quickly and we have none left at the winery. We are also very low in stocks of our 2010 wines and a couple of months ago we started bottling our new season (2011) wines. The 2011 Rhubarb, Gooseberry and Elderflower & Apple wines are now available from the winery, our on-line shop, and from our retail outlets in Cumbria.

We have also bottled some wines made with grapes grown in Cumbria and Northumbria. Although these have been made only for private consumption, you can find out more at www.northumbrianwine.com.

We have started preparing for the production of our 2012 wines by harvesting the first two batches of rhubarb. This has been frozen to await further pickings. Luckily the plentiful rain has kept the rhubarb growing and we must pick more very soon! 

Although there hasn’t been much activity in the winery during the Spring, this doesn’t mean we are sitting here contemplating our navels! We have just picked up where we left off last year on our next big project, which is the conversion of a large adjacent barn into self-catering properties. This is a fabulous walking area (the main attraction being High Cup Nick) and the barn conversion should provide space for visitors to the area who might like the added attraction of staying at a winery. Recently we started re-roofing, which firstly involved installing new oak trusses. These pictures show something of what was involved.

Firstly the scaffolding goes up.

The first oak truss is lifted into position.

The first ridge purlin is bolted into position.

All three oak trusses and purlins in position.

The rafters (spars) are added.