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11th May 2012

Temptation has arrived! What could be better than the combination of wine and chocolate? We've been working with a chocolatier from Wales who has used the Upperton Nebula to craft some brilliant "English Sparkling Wine" truffles. We'll be filming the production of them next time so you can see what goes into our Upperton Truffles and watch Jules the Master Chocolatier in action. www.blackmountainchocolate.co.uk

This years growing season has been very mixed up. The buds burst open a week earlier than they ever have due to the glorious end to March. Then... we experienced the wettest drought I've ever known, the sun glasses got put back into long term storage and now the vines are ten days behind average. I'm putting a picture on the gallery of the current growth stage, you can see that there is only a few leaves out and that some buds have hardly moved in over a month http://www.uppertonvineyards.co.uk/public_html/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=62.

The wet weather kindly brings the threat of disease with it too which means we have to be extra vigilant and that I'll begin my chronic insomnia season a few months earlier this year.

Lets hope the weather gets drier and preferable warmer in the next few weeks and then a blazing summer follows. No more rain dances please!

James

@uppertonvine for regular updates.

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02 May 2012

Some exciting development this week. We've managed to employ the help of Guy Smith who is a branding expert in the wine business to help us make some refinements to our labels. We would also like to ask for the help of our customers as to any improvements they think can be made for the 2010 vintage later on this year and will soon be opening a facebook forum so as to get your views.

The vineyard is coming alive now but desperately in need some warmer weather to get things moving properly. There is now a beautiful green hue to the vineyard as the shoots continue to grow but the threat of frost maybe back at the weekend. See the gallery for photos of us having light the candles during the last frosty night.

Only a week on Saturday and Upperton will be at the Petersfield Wine Fair, if you can make it it's only £2.50 for entry and there will be 250 wines open for you to try.We hope to meet you there preferable in a sober state!

Give you some more news next week on the vineyard and put some pictures on the twitter and facebook accounts. (@uppertonvine)

Thank you for reading, James

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We thought it was about time that we started our own blog. There is always so much going on in the vineyard and we want to keep you up-to-date so here we will be adding all sorts of interesting news.

It's a really exciting year for us at Upperton. It's the first summer that our wine has been for sale and demand is already so high that and we hope we can keep up with demand until the next vintage is ready for realease. We're really excited about the wine days and evenings that we will be hosting here at Upperton. We believe that wine should be fun as well as educational. Look at the events page to find out more of what is going on here this summer.

English Wine Week will be a particular highlight as we will be serving afternoon teas on our decking that overlooks the vineyards and South Down National Park. There lots of extra tours for that week as well so come and meet us if you haven't already. English Wine Week is June 2nd-10th.

Finally if you have any question on vines and grape growing this is going to be the forum for asking them and hopefully getting the right answer as well! Send any question to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and I'll do my best to answer them.

James Rogers- Vineyard Manager