UK Wine Show 106 Martin Fowkes of Three Choirs

This show was published 25 May 2008

Overview

Three Choirs is situated in Gloucestershire approximately halfway between Bristol and Birmingham, 12 miles from Gloucester. Martin took over the winemaking at Three Choirs in 1988. The vineyard is surrounded by hills and has sandy soils with good drainage. The area is good for growing fruit with strawberries, raspberries and apples all grown locally.

Three Choirs were hit quite badly during the 2007 vintage. A big crop in 2006 as followed by wet weather in June/July 2007 (esp in Gloucestershire) which caused a lot of the fruit to set very badly. Fortunately a couple of weeks sunshine end August ripened the few grapes they did have but there was very little of the vintage to bottle. Vines have a tendency to produce big crop, little crop and prove the case in previous years, e.g. a small crop in 1995 was followed by a big crop in 1996 and small in following year, so it is hoped 2008 will be a good harvest and there is no reason so far to believe otherwise, though they won't know until July has passed.

As a trial they have put up polytunnels to grow Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes. The vines are planted at high density with only a few buds per vine and only 1 acre has been planted. This year will be the first proper harvest.

Three Choirs have a restaurant and accommodation on site which mainly attracts visitors on weekend breaks but also caters for the locals all year round.

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The UK Wine Show is sponsored by ThirtyFifty. Our team of wine tasters are busy entertaining and educating UK consumers to help them get the most out of wine.

Music

The music used for the UK Wine Show is Griffes de Jingle 1 by Marcel de la Jartèle and Silence by Etoile Noire.