Western Daily Press (Saturday)
COTSWOLDS BUBBLES
Popping corks has been a familiar sound this week , with race-goers celebrating wins at the Cheltenham Festival with glasses of fizz. Sue Bradley raises a glass to the Poulton Hill Estate Vineyard, a contender for the food and drink business of the year category in the 2019 Western Daily Press Food & Farming Awards
THE French fill their flutes with champagne, the Italians prosecco and the Spanish cava, while those who enjoy a glass of English bubbly are increasingly reaching for bottles of bulari.
The family-run Poulton Hill Estate in Gloucestershire has gone so far as to trademark its name for the sparkling white and rosé wines it creates from grapes grown within its sevenacre vineyard between Fairford and Cirencester.
The word ‘bulari’, a variation of the Latin ‘ bullarum’, meaning bubbles, celebrates the area’s Roman past, together with the care taken to produce a drink of distinction.
Bulari has already provided the Poulton Hill Estate with a reason to celebrate this year after its 2015 sparkling rosé was honoured in the ‘zesty and zingy’ category of the World’s Finest Glass of Bubbly Awards.
The accolade, bestowed after a two-day tasting session by more than 50 of the world’s top wine professionals in Westminster, came hot on the heels of awards for its red and white wines from the South West Vineyards Association, while its sloeinfused spirit Sloe de Vie was named product of the year in the Lux Life Awards.
All in all, it’s been an exciting few months for Tiléri Charles-Jones and Natalie Murphy, the women who look after the vines at the Poulton Hill Estate, and they’re looking forward to the grape-growing season ahead.
“We’ve had to battle through frosts, wind damage and other challenges Mother Nature has thrown at us but we’ve never lost hope or enthusiasm for our end goal,” explains Tiléri, managing director of the vineyard.
“We want to put Gloucestershire’s grape growing on the map and we’re especially keen to raise awareness of what we do locally – we’ve been here for eight years and there are still people in neighbouring villages who don’t know about us, which is why we entered the Western Daily Press Food & Farming Awards.”
The Poulton Hill Estate vineyard was founded in 2010 by businessman Max Thomas, who had long dreamt of using his sunny, southfacing slopes and clay loam soil for growing grapes.
He and his team have gone on to plant the seven acre (three hectare) site with more than 9,000 vines, including Phoenix, Seyval Blanc and Bacchus white grapes and the red varieties of Rondo and Regent.
Poulton Hill Estate’s first sparkling vintage, made using grapes picked in 2012, made wine connoisseurs sit up and take notice after it was honoured with a Quality Drink Award, and the team has continued to notch up a
We’ve had to battle through frosts, wind damage and other challenges Mother Nature has thrown at us
TILéRI CHARLES-JONES
range of accolades over the years, including medals from the International Wine Challenge and Wine GB Awards for its Bacchus reds. Meanwhile at the annual awards of the South West Vineyards Association, Poulton Hill’s 2016 Special Reserve Red shared first place with Sharpham Estate’s Pinot Noir in the red category, while its 2017 dry white from the Bacchus grape category netted a silver.
Tiléri, Natalie and the team have especially high hopes for the wine they’ve created from their 2018 harvest, the earliest in the UK since 1982, with 22 tonnes of grapes picked at the Gloucestershire vineyard.
“With the weather we get now and the quality of the soil here, the conditions within the vineyard are the same as they were in the Cham- pagne region 30 years ago,” Tiléri explains.
Running a vineyard is a yearround occupation. From late winter the Poulton Hill team braves the elements to prune the vines ahead of the growing season, returning later on to manage the leaf canopies to ensure grapes get enough sunshine and maintain good air circulation.
At the same time the vines are carefully watched for signs of pests and diseases that could decimate harvests.
Tiléri, who went to school in Gloucestershire, worked at a vineyard in Australia for several years and maintains some of the practices she learnt there.
“The people I worked with encouraged me to talk to the vines: whether this is because it’s good for the grapes or a way of preserving one’s sanity when pruning one after
another, I’m not sure,” she laughs.
“Nevertheless I’ve continued to do it here!”
All the grapes harvested at Poulton Hill are hand-picked and carefully checked for quality before being sent to the Three Choirs Vineyard in Newent to be pressed and undergo an initial fermentation.
Afterwards Tiléri, Natalie and the team decide on the different blends that will give the wines their distinct characters. In the case of bulari, this involves subjecting the wine to bottle fermentation and ‘riddling’ and ‘disgorging’ to remove any accumulated sediment before it’s drunk.
Poulton Hill’s sloe spirit Sloe de Vie, the name being derived from the French colourless brandy eau de vie, or ‘water of life’, is a clear liqueur made using sloes handpicked at the estate. These are triple-distilled and then bottled to preserve its delicate aromas and freshness.
Wines and spirits made by the Poulton Hill Estate are sold through a number of independent shops throughout the West, and the vineyard runs a ‘cellar door’ at the estate, selling direct to the public, and offers tours.
The Western Daily Press Food & Farming Awards’ food or drink business of the year award recognises producers who show a real commitment to food and farming in the West. Tickets are now on sale for the 2019 Western Daily Press Food & Farming Awards’ glittering awards ceremony at the Royal Bath & West Showground on Monday May 13. For more information visit: https://reachplcevents.com/ events/west/western-daily-pressfood-farming-awards/