Knightor Winery

2023 Vintage

Yields were big across the board, but also appeared to be very difficult to predict prior to harvest. We had experienced contract vineyards way out on yield predictions. Often actual yield was 25%- 30% higher than prediction. Here at Knightor we have crushed just over 90 tons, our largest vintage ever. Running low on tank space as a result! Yields on Seyval blanc were particularly high, but sugars were poor. It appeared for us Chardonnay did particularly well this year achieving super ripeness. Pinot noir was also good but the skins thin and lacking the colour of previous years, good for rose but a struggle for red.

We always make both still and sparkling. I am glad we held a decent amount of sparkling reserve wines from 2022 in tank meaning we are able to balance the low acidities of this year. However we will aim to make some vintage sparklings to highlight the vintage which in general should offer a softer style of sparkling. 

Quality is variable to be honest. The grapes were typically very clean but due to the high rainfall over august and september, the early ripening grapes often lacked the aromatic concentration plus acidity thats typical of English still wines. Later ripening varieties often faired better, achieving better balance of sugar/ acidity plus higher concentration of flavours. Similar in quality to 2013/2014, decent but not outstanding.