The Vineyard
We approached the National Trust in 1994 after going for a walk round the lake and decided that it would be a good place to plant vines. The walled garden had been home to two sheep and a donkey for some time and we thought we could do better than that. Luckily the National Trust thought so too and rushed us past the many committees to allow us to plant before a planting ban was implemented in England; under EU law, we had nearly reached our maximum quota of wine. As luck would have it, the ban never came into force and the east side of the vineyard was planted in 1995 with Bacchus and Auxerrois vines.
Bacchus is derived from Riesling and Sylvaner varieties and Auxerrois, much planted in Alsace, is similar to Pinot Blanc. The west side was planted in 1996 with a fairly new red variety known, rather unpromisingly as GM6494/5. It has now been officially named 'Rondo' which is rather apt for a vine grown on a property famous for it’s Rotunda. Rest assured that the GM stood for Geisenheim, the German institute that bred this non-vinifera vine, suitable for cool climate viticulture. 70 Pinot Noir vines were also planted, against the south-facing northern wall.
We planted roses at the ends of every fifth row. Ostensibly they are an early warning sign of mildew which is a serious fungal pest of the grapevine. In reality the modern roses get mildews at the same time as the vines but they remain there in an aesthetic capacity only. Likewise there was a reason for planting lavender bushes at the ends of all the other rows and all the along the length of the wall with the Pinot Noir. It was said that wasps did not fly near lavender bushes but we now know that to be made up by old wives, as wasps remain a serious pest and devastated our 2000 harvest of Rondo grapes.
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