A Field Day: New 2023 Pet-Nats from Titch Hill

 

Titch Hill - Alex Tristram & Sam Bunker
ENGLAND, SOUTH-EAST, WEST SUSSEX

Cause for celebration: new wines from Sam & Alex at Titch Hill!

Our UK growers continue to release wines to coax the sun back, and things are looking promising! Sam & Alex’s latest wines are brilliant examples of the fun you can have with UK fruit when worked properly, with no additions.

Among the arrivals - a trio of pet-nats - we have a top-up of their ‘22 Wild Combination; and from 2023, the new edition of Fieldwork (properly sparkling this year) and the introduction of Love Streams: a high energy pet-nat of Baccus, Auxerrois and Chardonnay - (up to you to decide if its a bottled-expression of Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Cassavetes, or Tim Hecker)

Due to prior commitments with their own fruit for the 2023 vintage, these releases are all negocé for Titch Hill this year, with fruit sourced from organic or responsible lutte raisonnée vineyards from across England's south.

Though the 2024 releases will be back to domaine fruit, it's a thrill to see nonetheless their house-style shining through so clearly in these wines: a testament to their keen-eyed vision and brilliant winemaking. Clean, fun, bright and beautiful.

AVAILABLE NOW

SPARKLING

2023 - Love Streams - Bacchus, Auxerrois, Chardonnay
They’ve done it again: summer in a bottle! Super-bright, fresh with citrus, someone’s been going heavy with the zester whilst prepping the picnic. Drinks like a good time in a meadow, heady with nearby elderflower.

2023 - Field Work - Pinot Noir, Reichensteiner, Ortega
A juicy, vibrant and immediately satisfying pet-nat of Pinot Noir, Reichensteiner and Ortega. Juicy, smoky fruit with a lovely amaro bitterness.

Ready to put the wines through their paces with Leeds’ formidable Thai Aroy Dee as selected by Wayward Wines own Steve Nuttall.

 

New Reds from Thierry Forestier!

 

The 2022 wines of Thierry Forestier are here! Among our favourite expressions of the Gard, Thierry manages to produce featherweight wines without losing any of the heady garrigue he loves.

In the village of Souvignargues on clay and limestone, Thierry farms 12 hectares of native Gard varieties, having traded in his career in IT for that of a vigneron back in 2004. A friendship with Eric Pfifferling was the catalyst for working as gently as possible, minimal intervention in every sense of the word.

Farming gnarled old vines organically in co-planted parcels surrounded by forest, prioritising soil health and diversity, Thierry has become something of a luminary in the area. Now nearly twenty years into his journey, he's a champion of zero-sulphur winemaking and careful farming, he's helped fledgling growers with vinifications, lends a hand in re-training their vines back to traditional goblet pruning, or helping sourcing grapes when growers hit hard vintages.

In the cellar, Thierry keeps macerations short, whole bunches rarely stay in tanks for more than 5 days, presses are gentle, ageing is simple. A light touch is the order of the day in the cellar, and it shows.

Available in small quantities, those who have been lucky enough to familiarise themselves with Thierry's wines are well versed in why we consider them so special!

The wines are detailed now below. With thanks to Bryan McComb for the Thierry portraits 📸

AVAILABLE NOW

REDS

2022 - Anathème Rouge - Carignan, Aramon

Thierry's park-drinking red, he picks four of his twelve hectares for this cuvee: a wine to be enjoyed with friends, he ensures there is enough of it to go round! Majority Carignan with a little of the prized Aramon, vines are planted over clay-limestone at 115m above sea level. Whole bunch maceration of both varieties together for 5 days, free-run and press-juices assembled together and aged 9 months in concrete tank. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, no additions.

2022 - Salve Ager - Grenache , Cinsault (MAGNUM AVAILABLE)

Delicate, detailed, with great tension in 2022, a lovely fine line of tannin and a saline black-olive lick. Majority Grenache, lifted with Cinsault. Vines are planted over clay-limestone at 115m above sea level. Whole bunch maceration of both varieties together for 5 days, free-run and press-juices assembled together and aged 9 months in concrete tank. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, no additions.

2022 - Aramonix - Aramon

Thierry makes tiny volumes of this cult-cuvee: picking less than a hectare parcel of 80 year old Aramon planted over clay-limestone. Just a 4 day whole-bunch maceration, free-run and press-juices assembled together and aged 9 months in an enamel tank. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, no additions.

2022 - Puech Coucou - Oeillade, Cinsault

Another micro-cuvee Thierry experimented with in '21, we're thrilled to see it becoming an annual release: picked from a beatiful, forested parcel of old-vine Cinsault and Oeillade that used to be blended into Salve Ager. Puech Coucou has real finesse, dense with fruit but nimble, elegant and long. Whole bunch maceration of both varieties together for 8 days, free-run and press-juices assembled together and aged 9 months in concrete tank. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, no additions.

FOR WHOLESALE ENQUIRIES: HELLO@WINESUTB.COM

 

May 13: A Tasting at Little Duck

 

We're very pleased to be pouring new arrivals for the trade at Little Duck, Dalston on Monday, May 13!

We'll be there with Otros Vinos and Ferran from Bodega Clandestina, from 11am to 3.30pm - Ferran will be pouring his 2023 vintage as well as a couple back vintages.

Simple drop us an email if you work in the trade to RSVP.

 

May 6: Foresto By The Sea!

 

Very excited to be spending the first May Bank Holiday by the sea next week with our pal Francesco Pozzobon (Tenuta Foresto) at the delightful new wine bar: Drifter, Brighton!

Francesco will be on hand to pour his macerated whites: the perfect foil to plates of seafood that the guys at Drifter will be serving up, with the pebble beach beyond them: good wine, good food and no doubt good music, lovely way to spend a sunny Monday evening - from 5pm onwards!

Open to all, hope to see you there, or in the sea. 🌊

 

May 13: A Trade Tasting in Newcastle

 

Looking forward to pouring in the North East again alongside Beattie & Roberts, Gergovie Wines, Otros Vinos, Roland Wines, Wayward Imports and Wright's Wines at the lovely House Bar (Heaton, Newcastle) - thanks so much to Ailsa & Ethan for organising this one.

Monday May 13, pouring for the trade from 11am - 5pm. House Bar will be kicking open the doors to the public from 6pm for more wine and snacks, so please do come through!

If you work in the trade and would like to taste, please drop us a message to RSVP.

 

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 - Quatro Mustachios

 

Nine days to go before the British Wine Fair with Isca, Where The Light Gets In and Bedrock on March 3rd! Open to all, the fair will be an opportunity for everyone to taste, learn, share stories and celebrate the community blossoming around UK wine. Tickets available via WTLGI below!

Among our UK producers joining will be Sam & Dave from Quatro Mustachios !

📸 Sam Bunker of Quatro Mustachios (and Titch Hill) Bedrock at Ham Street 2023 by Bryan McComb

Meeting whilst studying at Plumpton in 2017; Sam Bunker & David Haynes officially started their 'international wine collective' Quatro Mustachios in 2020.

Working at vineyards across Europe, alongside the 3rd and 4th Mustachios - Teo Vitsas & Matthias Altmann - the four produced the first collaborative wine under the Quatro Mustachios tag in Austria at Matthias' cellar.

Sam & Dave later produced two more wines in Catalunya and Ribeira Sacra in 2021, before returning home to the UK, to focus on their mutual love of hybrids/PIWI's.

The first UK releases for Quatro Mustachios were produced in 2022 with zero additions in Sussex, using fruit from a 50-year-old vineyard in Somerset, and the other varieties coming from a vineyard on clay over sandstone in East Sussex.

Their wines are huge fun, a testament to intuitive, experimental winemaking and the wild potential of PIWIs in the right hands

 

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.