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The cooler weather and gentle seasons of England create a unique environment for growing grapes. This ‘cool climate viticulture’ means our grapes ripen more slowly, keeping a natural balance of sugar and acidity, which gives our wines their fresh, delicate flavours.
To make the most of these conditions, our winemaking techniques are specially adapted to the English climate. From testing grapes in the vineyard to harvesting at just the right moment, through fermentation (where grape sugars turn into alcohol), blending, filtration, and bottling, every stage is carefully managed to bring out the best in the grapes.
This page will guide you through each stage of our process, explaining how we turn English grapes into award-winning red, white, and rosé wines. You’ll see how traditional methods and modern technology work together to create wines full of flavour.
Take a look at our ‘How Is Sparkling Wine Made?’ article to see how we produce Bolney’s luxury sparkling wines.
Our Winery and Equipment
To make the most of our grapes and the English climate, we use specialist equipment that helps us craft each wine with care. This includes a 60-hectolitre press to gently squeeze the juice from grapes, 8 new wine tanks, and a disgorging line that removes sediment from sparkling wines to keep them bright and smooth.
In 2019, we opened a new winery on the estate. It gives us room to handle more grapes while keeping the quality and attention to detail that English winemaking demands. The project was supported in part by grants from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, Coast to Capital, and DEFRA.
Testing The Grapes
Once the grapes start to ripen, it’s time to start testing. The vineyard team walk the vineyard, taking samples to bring to the winery lab, where they are routinely tested for their sugar and acidity levels. The riper they get, the more sugar they have, allowing more alcohol to be produced. We look for the sweet spot, the perfect ratio between sugar and acidity that will tell us when the grapes are ready for picking. And of course, we taste the grapes too!
Harvest
Once the grapes are ready, they must be harvested quickly. Any delay can cause acidity to drop, reducing the fresh, lively character of the finished wine. We carefully press all our grapes, keeping the free-run juice separate from the pressings to control the wine’s style. The juice is then added with a carefully chosen yeast to start fermentation, helping to bring out the aromas and flavours that best reflect each grape variety.
Fermentation
Fermentation is where the sugars in the juice are converted into alcohol by the yeast. The colour will slowly start to change and flavours start to develop, producing enticing aromas. Throughout one fermentation a wine goes through many distinctive stages and it can be quite a job keeping on top of them all. We must ensure the temperature is kept just right, and that the yeast has all the nutrients it needs to thrive.
Blending and Stabilisation
Once the fermentation is complete, we can start the process of blending, where portions of carefully selected tanks are brought together and analysed. We are looking for consistency of style. But also, for the wine to best reveal its year of origin and reflect the vine’s hard work. Once we feel we have found that balance, we blend, stabilise and filter the wine.
Filtration
Filtration allows us to clarify the wine and achieve that bright, clean wine that we know and love. It is a delicate process. We must ensure all the aromas and flavours we have worked hard to cultivate are retained, whilst also making the wine as clear as possible. To achieve this, we pass the wine through several different filters, each one finer than the last until the wine is stable with wonderful clarity.
Bottling
After all that work, we bottle our new vintages. The wines must be kept in optimal condition throughout the process. We don’t relax until they are sealed and ready for you to enjoy. And our work is complete. Well, until the next harvest!
Shop our award-winning wines
From our hero Pinot Noir and our beautiful white wines, to the best English sparkling wines. There is truly something to suit every taste.
ENGLISH WINESShop our award-winning wines
From our hero Pinot Noir and our beautiful white wines, to the best English sparkling wines. There is truly something to suit every taste.
ENGLISH WINES
