Country: England
Region: Wiltshire
Grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Gris
Viticulture: Organic and natural wine
Vinification: The final draw of the 2022 pressing for the traditional method (roughly 15% of the total yield) fermented in a small 400 litre stainless steel tank. During the 2023 harvest, a little fermenting must of the main field blend is saved in the freezer. After the manic activity of harvest is complete, the must is thawed out and bottled with the 2022 to spark secondary fermentation. Rested over winter, second fermentation properly begins in the spring as the cellar warms up. No disgorgement, unfined and unfiltered.
Hugo Stewart's farming story doesn't begin with fruit, but with pigs. The family farm; Botley's, had belonged to his grandmother and uncle, before the responsibility fell to him. So pigs it was, until twenty years ago. Needing a change of scenery he rented the farm out to a neighbour so he could spend a year in France where he started producing wine under Les Clos Perdus, an esteemed biodynamic estate. A decade on and he moved back to England where he planted vines on the family farm.