The wight stuff

Jun 27 2008 by Jane Hall, The Journal

ROD Thompson moved to the Isle of Wight in 1990 and bought a beautiful farmhouse at Wellow in West Wight with 15 acres of land, five of which faced due south.

He hadn’t intended to plant vines but reasoned that: “If they are going to thrive anywhere in the United Kingdom, it will be here.”

And after a distinguished career in medical research, “an expensive hobby sort of took over.” He now tends 10,000 vines and the experiment has proved such a success that he’s sold “all the wine we’ve ever made,” something that happens only in the dreams of thousands of established winegrowers across the Channel.

“You just sort of bumble along,” he shrugs. But this doesn’t quite ring true. There’s clearly a lot of hard work been put into making Rossiter’s Vineyard a success and the wines made in what was once a chicken battery are extremely impressive. His 2006 Dry White is aromatic and fresh, clean and citrussy, and a 2007 Rosé has attractively crisp redcurrant and strawberry fruit. “We didn’t think we’d make decent English red and just planted a few rows for fun,” he says.

But progressively earlier, riper harvests with much higher sugar levels over the years have made all the difference – his excellent 2007 red is both soft and juicy and shows nice ripeness with perfumed, plummy fruit. He is especially proud of his 2004 Bacchus, a dry white, which was selected for the high table of the Cambridge College, which he served as Director of Medical Studies.

The winery at Rossiter’s Vineyard contains a wine shop, open most days, as well as the local post office. It’s free to visit to vineyard and to taste the wines; and, glory be, samples were offered in proper tasting glasses, which enabled me to get a proper idea of what the wine is really like.

The biggest of the three commercial vineyards on the island is on the east coast, just outside Ryde. Rosemary’s Vineyard has 30 acres of vines with a very well set-up winery shop and café. There were once even plans for a monorail to whisk visitors around the site. Tasting is also free, but in wretched tiny glass thimbles that do the wine no favours at all.

Conrad Gauntlett took time from bottling his (delicious) apple juice to talk to me. “We’re 60 feet above sea level here. I worked out that if sea levels rise the beach would end up just at the edge of the vineyard.”

A sharp business mind lurks behind his jokey patter. Rosemary Vineyard is well run and the wines are seriously good, especially a bubbly made mainly from Pinot Grigio. It has a rich biscuity bouquet and a soft, almost orangey mouthful of creamy bubbles.

Rosemary Dry White is also enjoyable, with a good depth of ripe apple and citrus fruit; 90% of sales are made at the farm gate.

The vineyard shop, open year-round and managed by cheerful, friendly staff who really seem to take a pride in what they sell, is packed with tea-towels, jars of chutney and other local edibles and there’s also a huge choice of liqueurs, ciders and juices made at the vineyard. Wine alone, even with an annual turnover of 45,000 bottles isn’t enough, it seems. And being a vineyard owner can be a demanding business.

“People do it for the wrong reasons, “ says Conrad, “you have to be an engineer, an electrician, a farmer and a chemist – but it’s fun.”

He’s so busy that he claims never to have ventured further north than the M4. But would he do it again? After no more than a few moments’ pause for thought, he looks me straight in the eye. “Yeah.”

All the Rosemary Vineyard wines can be bought online at www.rosemaryvineyard.co.uk.

The hard business realities of making English wine are such that two once highly praised vineyards on the island, Barton Manor and Cranmore, have closed along with several smaller ones, and their vines have been grubbed up. The English wine industry has often had to struggle to survive. A third important vineyard, Adgestone, at Brading, in a gorgeous setting of rolling downland, is again up for sale.

Present owner Alan Stockman employs a winemaker and vineyard manager and contents himself serving cream teas to the odd visitor.

The wines are relatively expensive, but sell well enough, especially to hotels on the island. On a damp summer’s day the place had a sad air, but it has considerable potential. I hope that Alan finds a buyer soon.

Adgestone was the very first English wine I tasted, almost 30 years ago, and I would be so sad if it were to suffer the same fate as the Barton Manor. Until a buyer can be found it remains open all year round and four wines can be tasted for a small fee (though in yet more unsatisfactory thimbles).

SHORT MEASURES

THE wine range stocked by Lidl isn’t huge, but includes some remarkable bargains.

I’m particularly taken with Barcelino 2004 (£4.99) an oak-aged Catalonian red made from Tempranillo and Garnacha grapes grown near Barcelona. It has a real depth of spicy, plummy fruit with a firm oaky finish.

Pinot Grigio Provincia di Pavia 2007 (£3.47) is also a great effort, a crisp dry Italian white with the smell of ripe pear and melon and an apple-like flavour. Chablis 2006 (£5.98) is clean and fresh with fairly ripe apple fruit, but also a lingering mineral salts character – not the greatest Chablis I’ve ever tasted, but by no means the worst and utterly true to type.

Chardonnay 2007 from South East Australia (reduced to £2.99) is a cheerful sort of party white with a peachy, slightly toasty flavour. Finally, Champagne Comte de Brismand (£9.99) is the real thing in a soft, fruity way, with plenty of creamy bubbles.