Real Wine Fair 2024

 

In little over a week we're very pleased to be taking part in the 2024 edition of the Real Wine Fair!

Here's who will be joining us this year:

Andi Weigand will be pouring a full range of his juicy 2022 wines, farmed on the keuper slopes of Iphofen, Franconia - the land where Silvaner (and techno) reign supreme.

Vincent Alexis will be on hand to pour through multiple vintages from his Barouillet domaine, a rare chance to try his experimental cuvees alongside heavy-hitting crowd favourites.

Hugo Stewart will be on hand to represent the eponymous Domaine Hugo, pouring his pure, invigorating sparkling wines and if we're lucky, he may have a little of his very limited still cuvée: Two Times A Half under the table!

Nicola & Daniel Ham will be pouring through all their new Offbeat releases, wines with prolonged foudre ageing, experimental macerations and cider/wine hybrids - we can't wait for you to try these!

Looking at the map for this year's RWF, it looks like Andi will be waving distance from the UK growers in the Main Gallery, with Vincent a few tables behind, splashing wines around the sea of France.

Let us know if you're attending on either the 28th or 29th so we can introduce you to the growers! Looking forward to seeing you all there.

If you haven't booked yet, you can do so via the button:

 

A British Wine Fair: 03/03/24 - Offbeat

 

The countdown continues to the British Wine Fair on March 3rd with ISCA , Where The Light Gets In and Bedrock - 10 days to go! Tickets are available via the link in our bio, the fair is open to all, and we can't wait to welcome you there.

A handful of some of the most exciting producers working on our shores today gathered together to pour their wines in celebration of a blossoming community of enthusiastic and passionate makers & drinkers!

Among our producers joining will be Nicola & Daniel at Offbeat - who we're very excited to release brand new cuvees from later this year. Watch this space!

📸 Nic & Dan at Bedrock at Ham Street, Summer 2023.

For those unfamiliar, Offbeat is the exciting project from Nicola & Daniel Ham, started in 2018 as a creative outlet, quickly becoming a full-time family operation. Both marine biologists, Dan was bitten by the winemaking bug while living in New Zealand as Nicola completed her PhD.

Since 2020 Dan and Nicola have been making the wines in their own cellar, a converted barn just outside Salisbury. They produce delicate and dynamic wines with no additions, using fruit from trusted growers with shared values. Since 2022, all fruit is organically or biodynamically grown.

 

Notes from the Field.

The latest release from Dan & Nic at Offbeat is here: introducing Field Notes 1.

The first instalment of Field Notes is the by-product of their experimentations with maceration techniques and ageing, a supple and pretty blend of Pinots Noir & Blanc from a plot on clay soils in Crouch Valley, Essex.

Read more

Introducing Offbeat Wines

 
 
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Offbeat Wines – Daniel Ham


Cloudy Pet Nats, sparkling reds and an amphora-fermented skin-contact wine. Not exactly what you would expect when you think of wine from the West Country.

It never even crossed our minds when we started Under the Bonnet that we would be working with wines actually made in the UK, it is really cool that we are now working with an English wine producer.

Offbeat – the project of young winemaker Daniel Ham – started in 2018, we first tasted the debut vintage during a lock-in/power cut at 161 towards the end of last year.

The project has a true garage feel to it. Small-scale, simple production, letting the grapes speak for themselves. Just a 2,000-bottle production, hybrid varieties, grapes sourced from unsprayed or practically wild vineyards, macerations, amphora and pet-nats. Wild yeast and sulphur only when he really has to.

Dan isn’t just making wines a-la-mode for the 2020 harvest. He has bought a 50-year-old, two-ton square Coquard basket press, shipped from Champagne, and is investing in old oak. The plan is to make the wine in the way that best suits the raw material he has to work with at the time the grapes are picked, the idea evolving on return from the vineyard to winery.

There is a clear identity that runs through the wines and we can’t wait to see this project develop. The fruit selection on these wines was rigorous which has led to great stability in the bottle.

Skinny Dip and the amphora

Skinny Dip and the amphora

2019 Mind Over Matter – Siegerrebe, Solaris

Field blend of Siegerrebe (36%) and Solaris (64%). 10% of Siegerrebe hand-destemmed then foot-trodden in amphora. The rest was whole-bunch pressed, naturally settled then racked to the same amphora. Bottled via gravity after 15 days, lightly disgorged to remove the heaviest lees.

The fruit used for this wine was grown by Kathy Archer at her vineyard just outside of Ottery Saint Mary in Devon. Kathy is an organic grower (uncertified) and uses no pesticides or herbicides, relying on hard work and spending time amongst the vines to produce grapes of extraordinary quality.
 

2019 Wild Juice Chase – Triomphe

100% Triomphe d’Alsace, handpicked, carbonic maceration in stainless steel vat for five days. Gently pressed, left to ferment for a further eight days. Bottled via gravity, with a small amount of natural sugar remaining to finish fermentation. Hand-disgorged to remove the heaviest deposits.

Grapes come from a small plot of 35-year-old vines grown on clay over chalk in Hampshire’s Test Valley. A relaxed, lutte raisonée management approach is adopted and the vines grow with little human manipulation.
 

2018 Skinny Dip – Solaris

Ripe Solaris grapes from Kathy Archer’s vineyard were destemmed into an 800-litre amphora and left to naturally ferment. Three months of maceration, skins were pressed, and added back to the free run. Rested on full lees in stainless steel for a further ten months before bottling via gravity. In our eyes, a really accomplished wine considering it was Dan’s first vintage.

We have limited quantities of these wines so if you are interested please let us know ASAP so we can try to make sure we save some for you. NB: There will be no further discounts available on these wines.

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