Local footballers are looking electric in their new kit. With one of the team called ‘Bacchus’ there is a perfect excuse to have the local vineyard logo on the strip. There will be a new Bacchus wine added to our collection next summer too. 
The jersey picture kindly gifted by team coach will be proudly displayed in the shop.
All the sports coaches who give up their time to make the magic happen for the younguns – you are awesome.
While we have been busy on projects around the vineyard – inlcuding installing solar panels on the out-building roof, planting a wildflower meadow and more trees and getting to grips with a mechanical weeder to name a few, we thought you might like to know about a few local events we are involved with over the spring/summer.
Sunday 23rd April 10am-3pm – Ardington Food Fair in aid of Riding for the disabled – in The Loyd Lindsay Rooms – Village Hall A delicious array of local goodies and tasty lunch options.
Sunday 14th May 12-4pm Childrey WI Craft Fair at Childrey Village Hall including afternoon teas, pottery, beauty products, jewellery, plants, flowers.
Sunday 18th June 11am-5pm Thames Valley Food & Drink Festival at Brightwell Vineyard. A gathering of local food and drinks producers including local vineyards offering tastings and a relaxed atmosphere with live music.
Friday 11th – Sunday 20th August Waterperry Opera Festival Hendred Wines are delighted to be wine partner and you can order food (and our wine!) in advance with your ticket. 8 productions this summer; including the critically acclaimed productions of Mansfield Park and Peter Rabbit’s Musical Adventures. Headlining are new productions of Carmen and double-bill, Acis and Galatea/ Dido and Aeneas. We have enjoyed events at Waterperry Gardens ourselves over the years and wholeheartedly recommend them.
This Sunday 12th June 11am-5pm is the bi-annual open gardens event in the village. Tickets available in advance and on the day from the village shop. At the end of the trail is the vineyard where you can see the vines starting to produce the inflorescence which will become the flowers – seen in this image as the tiny white spindles. The garden here isn’t accessible as it is uneven (and not pristine like the others on the trail!) but a few of the flowers over the last year are in the images here. The wildflower meadow at the side of the vineyard is slowly progressing – just grasses, a few wild flowers and battling with weeds at the moment. The new wines will be available to taste. There is a toilet accessible for wheelchairs here for anyone who requires that facility.
2021-2022 vineyard garden flowers
Rodolfo the talented chef (second from the right), who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Lima, and his buddies delighted us all by serving up three courses of wonderful Peruvian tasting plates last Saturday. Just a few minutes after opening, all the tables were full (good effort from the ladies who perched up and ate from the computer stand) – but there was no ruffling this chef’s feathers and there were no tears from his waiting staff. In fact they were all smiling by the end (maybe they had been sipping too much of the pairing wine). Later on in the afternoon things became much calmer and we got a chance too to enjoy the gluten-free menu – Causa Limena, Aji de Gallina and a Chocolate, passion fruit and Banana Mousse, paired with our very own wines. The team all have demanding other occupations and organised this in their spare time in an effort to raise money for a charity helping those less fortunate than themselves. Fair dues to our local community around East Hendred who came and generosity supported, there will hopefully be many more smiles like this beaming back when the proceeds are received by the grateful community in Peru.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2021 2 – 5 PM
The vineyard is hosting a charity event organised by chef Rodolfo Marquez to raise money for a community of orphaned children located in Cusco, Peru, called The Rainbow Children Foundation.
Based in the city of Cusco, is the community of almost 200 children who are victims of abandonment, child abuse and extreme poverty. The Rainbow Children Foundation HOME | Niños del Arco Iris (ninosdelarcoiris.com) has developed an environment where the children can eat, study, receive medical attention and feel safe. Like any non-profit project, funds are needed to continue supporting these children.
Rodolfo will be cooking 3 small tasting plates of Peruvian fusion food combining the flavours, textures and colours of Peruvian vegetables, herbs and fruits. You are invited to enjoy these plates along with sampling Hendred wines which complement the flavours.
Do come along and tantalize your taste buds while supporting this wonderful work. Any donations for the foundation are at your discretion and will be collected by card or cash on the day. In addition to your donation towards the culinary delights, Hendred Vineyard will be donating 10% of wine sales made on the day.
You are welcome to come and take part without booking, but it would be really helpful if you could register your interest here Peruvian Fusion Food & Wine Tasting | Facebook so Rodolfo has an idea about how many plates to create. Please arrive anytime between 2PM and 4PM and you can sample the plates at your own pace, but do allow at least half an hour.
We will also be open for informal tastings/sales of wine in the shop which will be going on as usual alongside this event.
Thank you
We are sometimes asked about the pricing of locally produced English wines, compared to those imported/sold in supermarkets. To compare local English sparkling wines, with, for example Prosecco from Italy, there are differences in both production methods and economies of scale. Prosecco is fermented in large tanks for 3-6 months whereas English sparkling wines have two fermentations (like Champagne), with the secondary fermentation done in the bottle and the process takes a few years (4 years usually in the case of Hendred Brut). This longer, more labour-intensive method yields complexities, finer, more persistent bubbles, longer-lasting wines and subtle differences from bottle to bottle. However, it does cost more to produce, plus for for small English vineyards, operations are usually labour intensive with limited automation. And the producer pays a levy to the treasury of £2.87 for each bottle of English sparkling wine sold.
So not surprising that the average price of English sparkling wines which won a silver award at our regional competition is about £29.50 (in the same price range as Champagne). So why is Hendred Brut only £21.50 when it won a gold medal and ‘Best Sparkling Wine’ and Hendred Cuvee (which we didn’t enter for the competition but is a terrific sparkling too) only £16.50? It is because we would like Hendred wines to remain accessible for local people to enjoy. As one of the oldest vineyards in England, with such distinctive wines, there is opportunity to sell far and wide, but for as long as Hendred wines continue to sell out season to season, we hope to remain a local producer, selling exclusive wines primarily to our local community. The grapes in the image are currently fermenting, ready for a sparkling rosé in 2024!
Taking it easy and catching a few rays before harvest begins. Monitoring the sugars and acidity levels in the grapes are key to picking at exactly the right time to produce the best wine possible. A delicate art it is and in combination with confirmatory tests at the wine-makers a window for the harvest date is chosen. Later than usual this year, as the late frosts meant the secondary buds took over in producing fruit. The quality is just as good, you just have to look harder to find them!
The coveted ‘Best Sparkling Wine’ trophy 2020 comes home for Hendred Brut 2015. The award is presented here to Eileen and David Bell by Denise Santilli of the Thames and Chilterns Vineyards Association. Alongside are Philippe Desaint, a valuable recent addition to the vineyard and Biagio Grillo who has had a hand in the vineyard since it began almost 50 years ago. Most wine is sold via our cellar door by contactless collection (https://www.hendredvineyard.co.uk/our-wines), or select local retailers: Q Gardens Farm Shop, Added Ingredients and Millets Farm so we are proud to still sell locally and immensely grateful for our loyal customers.
East Hendred is well known for its creative villagers with skills in crafting, sometimes making scarecrows or other decorations but mostly for their knitting. An imaginative range of creations are dotted around the village which are a delight to see and growing by the day. These mice were abandoned in the village shop and followed us home. We don’t know who created them, but thought it would be mice to let them join in the woolliness taking over the village. Mrs mouse is partial to Hendred Brut but Mr mouse doesn’t care for wine – he spends his days watching the birds. Neither of them like the rain so they only come out when the sun shines. Some knitted grapes were found on our daughters craft table a while ago – she has been afflicted with the knitting bug too.
