Tony's Diary

"This is actually my real diary even though it's only about wine. My non-wine life wouldn't interest you. Doesn't interest me a lot! Wine is my life and it takes me to all sorts of fabulous places. Visiting vineyards is the greatest fun a sixty-something can safely have. But so too is going down to my cellar, opening a bottle and revisiting places through their wines ... and sharing it."

Our humble Theale Vineyard fizz is rated in the ‘World Top Ten’!

Published by Tony Laithwaite on 29th April 2008, 2:33pm

Today, wandered round the back of HQ in Theale to check on Laithwaites own English vineyard. It's less than an acre; tiny, but is currently amazing us.

At the big 'Effervescents du Monde' competition in Burgundy, the 2003 vintage of our allotment-vineyard ended up in the 'World Top Ten'! This competition is the 'Open' of the sparkling wine world. It is a competition which pits all-comers against each other. Our wine beat a whole bunch of Champagnes to achieve the best score of any English wine and come in at 8th overall ... not bad!

Most of the credit must of course go to the winemaker; the amazing Mike Roberts. Mike is 'Mr. English Sparkling'. I may have been banging on for thirty years that English winemakers – an eccentric bunch, as pioneers always are – were barking up the wrong tree with their German whacko-hybrid grapes and strange prunings. I might have said to all who would listen that the answer was to just copy Champagne. "Don't try and be cleverer just copy the French exactly". But it was Mike who actually did something about it. Setting up a well-equipped Champagne-style winery in Sussex, learning how to do it, and starting production of excellent fizz - like the South Ridge we have been happily selling for fifteen years now.

They'll put up a statue to Mike one day. A large one on the white cliffs of Dover ... when the south-facing slopes of the Downs – from the Isle of Wight to Berkshire –and the Chilterns are covered in neat green stripes and the whole world is celebrating with the lovely fizz from our 'white fields'; or 'champs agne' in the old French.

Mike had several winners in this competition, some from his own vineyards. He must wonder how come our tiny plot usually seems to come out best. Of course there's its secret; the rather unusual subsoil. I don't tell everyone this but our vineyard is actually a pile of rubble! When we moved into the new New Aquitaine House in Theale (from the old New Aquitaine House in Caversham) we discovered the builders had – as builders do – left the rubble of the previous building on site. We faced a hefty bill to have it carted away until some bright spark suggested we leave it where it was, cover it with earth and plant wines on the side facing the sun. Which we did.

The north side which faces the building and the truck yard was planted with ground cover stuff, fruit trees went in at either end and we got some French chums from Burgundy and Champagne to come over and plant it with us. They did it by the book. Low, ground hugging vines, post and wire, classic Champagne. And it grew. Seemed to thrive, in fact!
A few early cultivation mistakes maybe, but all sorted and is now one of the most immaculately tended vineyards you'll ever come across, tended by a local father and son team who take immense pride in their work.

I can see today that the vines are at least two weeks ahead of my wife Barbara and her friend Cherry's vines – only a few miles away but on the top of the Chilterns. That proved crucial last year when the Theale vines had flowered and been pollinated well before the appalling summer struck. Whereas the girls’ vine flowering was just rained-off and nothing managed to ripen.
Worrying about frost though. Vulnerable, tender shoots. But maybe the close presence of three heated warehouses to the west, north and east gives our little plot a favoured micro-climate.
How much do we make? Approx 900 bottles each year. Just enough, the first vintage, to give a souvenir bottle for each of the staff at Laithwaites. It’s £22.99. OK not the cheapest but this is a very hand-crafted micro cuvée. And it is the eighth best fizz in the world!

The 2003 is all but sold now, but if you have the chance to pop into our Theale shop, you may be lucky enough to find a bottle or two. Just tell Eddie – the manager – I sent you. If it is all gone, he's sure to recommend the South Ridge – a very good buy … they’re practically cousins, after all.

You might also find it at our wine bar, Red Heads, in Theale High Street.
And our Theale Vineyard fizz is even served at the bars in the Houses of Parliament!
My old Chum Bruno Paillard, President of the Champagne Growers Association let me know his organisation are not taking the threat seriously. But I swear he glares at our patch every time he visits.

Bruno has about the most sensitive palate I know ...certainly when it comes to sparklers. My dream is to slip him a glass of this and have him ask which 'Maison' - Rheims or Epernay - produced it. That'll be a good day. Might be my last though.