On this week's episode of The English Wine Diaries podcast is Tommy Grimshaw, head winemaker at Langham, in Dorset.
Tommy developed a love for English wine after a summer holiday season spent labelling and bottling wine as a teenager. He left school to work a harvest at Sharpham Vineyard – now known as Sandridge Barton – in Devon and there, he progressed to Assistant Winemaker.
He joined Langham in 2019 and worked alongside Daniel Ham with the aim of producing world class sparkling wines without fining or filtration and minimal SO2 additions. In January 2020, at the age of 24, Tommy took on the role of Head Winemaker, making him the youngest head winemaker in the UK.
As well as producing and developing Langham’s award-winning, minimal intervention wines, Tommy has judged for the Independent English Wine Awards, has been included in the Harpers 30 Under 30 list and was named their Commitment Champion for his dedication to the industry.
We talk about Tommy's love of hands-off winemaking, why the landscape of the Jurassic Coast, where Langham is situated, is so perfect for creating sparkling wine (despite the rain!) and his hopes for more young people to join the English wine-making scene.
You can follow Tommy on Instagram @tommy_grimshaw and find out more about Langham at langhamwine.co.uk.
This episode of The English Wine Diaries is sponsored by Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to see their award-winning range of English wine with free delivery on orders over £40. The English Wine Diaries listeners can also get 10% discount on their first purchase by entering the code TEWD10.
Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at thesouthernquarter.co.uk.
On this week's episode of The English Wine Diaries podcast is Tommy Grimshaw, head winemaker at Langham, in Dorset.
Tommy developed a love for English wine after a summer holiday season spent labelling and bottling wine as a teenager. He left school to work a harvest at Sharpham Vineyard – now known as Sandridge Barton – in Devon and there, he progressed to Assistant Winemaker.
He joined Langham in 2019 and worked alongside Daniel Ham with the aim of producing world class sparkling wines without fining or filtration and minimal SO2 additions. In January 2020, at the age of 24, Tommy took on the role of Head Winemaker, making him the youngest head winemaker in the UK.
As well as producing and developing Langham’s award-winning, minimal intervention wines, Tommy has judged for the Independent English Wine Awards, has been included in the Harpers 30 Under 30 list and was named their Commitment Champion for his dedication to the industry.
We talk about Tommy's love of hands-off winemaking, why the landscape of the Jurassic Coast, where Langham is situated, is so perfect for creating sparkling wine (despite the rain!) and his hopes for more young people to join the English wine-making scene.
You can follow Tommy on Instagram @tommy_grimshaw and find out more about Langham at langhamwine.co.uk.
This episode of The English Wine Diaries is sponsored by Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to see their award-winning range of English wine with free delivery on orders over £40. The English Wine Diaries listeners can also get 10% discount on their first purchase by entering the code TEWD10.
Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at thesouthernquarter.co.uk.
Hello and welcome to season nine of the English Wine Diaries podcast. I hope you've had a great start to the year and are ready to get stuck into more stories from the world of English Wine.
I'm your host Rebecca Pipcan, journalist and founder of the Southern Quarter and online magazine all about English Wine. Join me as I sit down with a special guest and talk all about their English wine journey.
From sommeliers to vineyard owners, hoteliers and some rather familiar faces too. Discover how a love of wine, particularly that made on British soil, has helped shape their lives and careers.
Welcome to the English Wine Diaries. The English Wine Diaries is kindly sponsored by Wiccams,
the great British wine. merchant. Did you know that while England has become renowned for growing the traditional champagne varieties of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Mournier,
we also go grapes such as Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and a whole other bunch you might not expect. Fancy a muscat from Cornwall, a gamé from Kent or perhaps a chesula from Sussex.
Wickham's has a huge portfolio of English wine and has won awards for its collections. So whether you're after one of Britain's well -known favourites, or want to try something a little off -piste,
check out wickhamwines .co .uk. And listeners of the English wine diaries get 10 % off their first order by entering the code TEWD10 at checkout.
That's TEWD10. T E W D 10. labelling and bottling wine as a teenager.
He left school to work a harvest at Sharpen Vineyard, now known as Sandridge Barton, in Devon, and there he progressed to assistant winemaker. He joined Langham in 2019 and worked alongside Daniel Ham with the aim of producing world -class sparkling wines without finding orthiltration and minimal SO2 additions.
In January, 2020, at the age of 24, Tommy took on the role of head winemaker. making him the youngest head winemaker in the UK. As well as producing and developing Langham's award -winning minimal intervention wines,
Tommy has judged for the independent English wine awards, has been included in the Harper's 30 under 30 list and was named their commitment champion for his dedication to the industry.
Hi Tommy, thank you so much for joining me today. It's an absolute pleasure. pleasure. Wow your career's been pretty fast paced and you're still only 27 years old. Did you envisage your journey back when you did that summer job?
No, not at all. To be honest I just needed some beer money to be honest. I got to buy this one at 17 and my auntie went to anti -natal classes with Duncan the winemaker,
Sharpen's wife and he needed some beer. help for the summer so yeah just uh there's a short bike road for me and it sounded like a bit of fun so yeah i had no idea where it's gonna go and and had you had interaction with english wine before no not at all to be honest um yeah no i'd like the sharpened vineyard was amazing it's right on the on the riverfront and i was lucky to to grow up in tautness and messed
up that's a big builder and um you know just lucky growing up on the river. So quite often sort of vineyard, but, you know, I was 17. So I just, you know, I'd never really drank too much wine.
I just, I don't know many people that did when I was 17. I certainly wasn't buying English sparkling wine or English still wine, 'cause if I was gonna buy a bottle of wine, I'd put them in five quid from the corner shop rather than anything nice.
So I have no interaction with it at all. - We've had Duncan on the show before and obviously he started quite young, his sort of wide -making career.
What was it then at Sharp and what was it about that summer that you spent there that really made you want to pursue a career in English wine? - And yeah,
I think like we, I was working with my mates for Stars, which I think is great. It was a fast year. I finished my first year of A -level. So it was a nice long summer. The weather was great.
Didn't really have anything to complain about. So this is I live in a great life as a 17 -year -old lad in the West country. But I think what really cemented it was I have to give Duncan huge amounts of credit.
So have a mentor who could see an interest and then really nurture that. that and encourage us to go,
okay, well you're labelling the wine, you're bottling the wine, here's how the wine, you know, has got to the bottle. And then, so I kind of got interested in that for Duncan, and then I failed my first year of A Levels quite spectacularly,
it's never really gotten too well with school, so I was reset my first year of A Levels and... kind of like all my mates would go on to second year and stuff and I'd be a year behind or I could leave school but my mum and my stepdad were very much like if I left school I'd need to go straight into work and you know start paying rent and things and you know that was September just as sharp I'm about to start a
harvest and I think Duncan wanted to sell a hand for harvest and so yeah I left school at 17 and and Duncan trained me up dead my foot year harvest, went off traveling then for six months,
'cause there wasn't much to do in the winery over the winter. Came back the following year, labelling and bottling again and I was bottling the wine that we'd pressed and picked, you know, six,
seven months beforehand. So then Duncan was like, cool, let me show you what's happened, you know, and really just ignited that passion in me. And I just didn't really want to do anything else at that point.
point. Can you remember your first taste of English wine, presumably it was at Shelfham? Yeah actually, I don't remember my exact first taste, but I remember my first Christmas do it was,
I was in Shelfham for like four or five months at this point and we just finished harvest, went on like our Christmas do, I was still 17 at the time and Mark was the MD, he's a great guy but he's quite regimented,
so I went to a wine bar that did like a full tasting. tasting. I remember it might be like, you know, I told me you can't drink, you're 17. And yeah, I don't know if I should say this or not, but yeah, Duncan was just like,
sneaking me little taster under the table. And he was like, yeah, try this, try that. And you know, the excitement that he showed in interesting wines and, you know, some other English producers in the South West,
some were like non -English wines, something like that. And seeing that excitement in him when he was sharing that knowledge, you know, that it was just so easy to catch that bug really with him around.
Tell us about some of the wines you were making back then. Yeah, so at Sharpham, I think, you know, they had such a good reputation, still do, for, you know, excellent,
quite precise still wines. And, you know, I think really championing, especially English, still read down in in the Dark Valley. So these amazing still wines quite aromatic like Germanic varieties you know and that was my introduction to English wine and yeah I loved it and that's my introduction to wine full stop and really fell in love with the wines.
I guess it was probably towards the end of my time at Sharpen where I was exposed to grower champagne but my friend Tom you actually still worked works down there. Timothy Strobel 2014,
the Subaru, which was just an amazing one, had a save and wild paradise, where I remember it so vividly, because it was a champagne, it tasted like no champagne I'd ever had before. It was never really too frostbite champagne,
to be honest. All sparkly wine, but then starting to taste through grower shampoos and realizing actually champagne isn't just one category, you know, it's actually quite different. and there's loads of different styles within that and realizing there's these oxidative slightly lower pressure really complex sort of site -specific sparkling wines that kind of steered my attention towards grower shampoos and then eventually to
Langham because Daniel Hamm you know the one that came before me was the only one really in the UK exploring that style at a time so that's because that's the shift from my sort of wine making it sharp towards,
towards Langham. But I think my sandwich are definitely exploring like a more sort of low intervention style down there now and they're producing still some amazing wines. But it's a bit different to the sharpen wines when I was there.
And low intervention obviously has been a key part of your time at Langham. Why, why is it so important to you? - I just think I like wines that have character.
And I think it's more fun to make. I think if you know what yeast strain you're gonna make, if you know what you wanna correct the acidity and you wanna correct the pH, and you're gonna filter it and it's gonna taste like this,
and you probably know what your blend's gonna be like a harvest, you know, don't get me wrong. There's some great wines, made in that way. I just don't think I've got the attention span to do it. My brains,
you know, I do the assistant wine maker here will tell you that my brain's pretty scatty for that sort of thing. And I just really like the artistic, creative side of wine making. So that's just how my brain works.
And that's that's what I love about it. So by being low intervention, no two days at the same, no two years at the same, you're really working with that. the raw materials. I think that's why it's so important that,
you know, we've just got one single vineyard site and our vineyard team are amazing and we've got a really good relationship and we go out in the vineyard as much as we can and they come into the winery as much as they can.
You know, it's like constant narrative and collaborative effort to create the wines that we do. It's just, I think, I like it. making wine in a more hands -off way because I think we're kind of showcasing how good our site is here as well as sort of being able to express our creative freedom.
Can you talk a bit more about that site for those that might not know much about Langham? Yeah sure so we're well we've kind of got 30 acres in production but we've now got 75 soon to be 85 acres undervalued.
vine so we're definitely one of the biggest if not the biggest single site in the southwest of the UK but we're just outside of Daugtherst down on the Jurassic coast so we're sort of limestone and chalk and the main source structures that we have we're kind of just on that that final band really before you get a bit further west and it goes sort of more alluvial and clay soils so I think it really puts us in a
good place for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Marnier, which are the main three varieties that we have and looking obviously towards the spark and wine side of things. So yeah,
about H5A is now under vine just outside of Dorchester, just off the A35. Yeah, and we're south facing aspects. We've got quite a few nice big hills around us.
I don't know how many of the listeners will be familiar with the Dorset landscape. There's huge big valleys running straight down to the coast and we're lucky that we're on top of the hills. We get good airflow and so it mitigates pretty much any frost risk for us.
But we've got huge big hills around us that protect us from prevailing winds. So it is actually a really, really good site and I'm being on chalk as well. It's pretty free draining because we do get a bit more rainfall down here in the West Country.
So actually if I start to grow them free, it's it's pretty perfect really. And then we have, it's an old mixed farm. So we've just converted old farm buildings into a press shed of winery and an old pig pen is now our temperature control wine stores and cladding and insulation.
So yeah, it's a bit higgledy -piggledy, but I think I always surprise people when they come down and see the winery, but I think we're making some pretty good wines from it. - Let's talk about some of those wines.
Um, I... particularly like your Rose, beautiful. But yes, can you talk me through your wines and perhaps also what's your favorite if you have one? - Yeah,
picking my favorites can be quite hard. But yeah, so we always do four wines. So we've split our classic Kuvee into two styles. That's something that Daniel sort of initiated. It's been looking to like La Mondia Bernier as a top champagne grower where you can kind of have two classics.
cuvées that play in your mouth and give you different experiences. So the first one is called Corallion and the second one is Culver. So they're two wines named after the soil structure under the vineyard.
Culver's chalk, Corallion's limestone. There are a whole load of other strata's of, we could have used, but Corallion and Culver were the only two words that everyone could pronounce in the team.
So here we are in my days. those two. And the Corallion is quite linear, fresh. When we're blending this one, it's always Chardonnay Dominum with the Corallion. And we're thinking very much about the amazing shellfish and seafood we have in Dorset.
So it's quite saline and citrus and very sort of like racy acidity, but still with good weight. And then Culver is Pino Dominant. And after it's fuller,
it's more broad in the palette. And yeah, it's like cured meats and, you know, maybe so fleshy of fish, like some monk fish and stuff, anything with a bit of spice as well, that can handle that.
So there's those two. Let me obviously have a rosé, which you mentioned, it's ever popular. I think it's sort of something that I've got the most pressure making rosé, because it seems like we could follow things,
so we've got to make sure it always lives up to that. But for me, it's a very... serious, quite a savory style of rose. I don't see the point of making a rose just for the sake of having a pink wine and a liner. It's got to get the same amount of attention as everything else.
And I think rose should really be a textural experience as much as what it looks like. So, it's dainte assemblage, so we blend our pastels as white wine to get the texture and and approve what we want and then we bring in between five and eight percent red wine.
we make from our Pinot Noir which brings not just colour but it brings out tannic sort of texture on the front of the palette. It gives that bit of grip as well as this sort of stewed red fruit profile so yeah that's always a really good fun wine and then we'll always do a blonde to blonde as well whether that's vintage or non -vintage.
60 percent of our planting is Chardonnay so we'll always have a bit more Chardonnay it's usually higher eight percentage and slightly smaller production. production. So those are the four that we'll always do. The Blonde de Blanc sometimes vintage,
sometimes non -vintage, it just depends on what's better for the wine. I'm not hung up on saying it has to be vintage or has to be non -vintage. And then if it's absolutely singing as a vintage wine then it will keep it a vintage. If it's lacking something then I don't see any harm in using some reserve wine to make the wine better.
So that's the way I always approach the Blonde de Blanc. Thank you. All of our reserve wines, we sort of like a perpetual reserve in concrete tanks, we have seven times 4 ,000 litre unlined concrete tanks underground,
so like bulk wine cellars basically. And they've all got their own little personality, so we can use the haste to blend for consistency because all the base permits are spontaneous yeast,
we still need to keep consistency and style. So you know, you have to roll in some more salinity, we've got a parcel, you know, reserve wine that we can bring into that. One of them is under floor, so it'll bring that nutty edge,
which is really nice. And so on. So we've got seven different reserve wines, all their own personality, which helps us keep consistency and style, whilst being quite a hands -off producer.
- And is there an appetite for ever doing a still? - 100%. 100%. We do occasionally make a small amount of still wine. We have planted some Pinot Gris,
so I'm hopeful that that will increase our chances of doing some still wine. We've also done some Dijon clones of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as our expansion has gone in,
so we'll see. We'll watch this space. I just think we absolutely need to nail sparking wine. That's where the passion is. That's where the skill is. That's what we're geared up for. And I do worry that in the UK being such a young industry,
it's quite easy to try and do everything and not necessarily nail any of it. So I very much want to nail the sparkling wine and I don't get them wrong.
Like I'm really proud of the wines that we've got. I think they're fantastic. But I do very much think we're at the start of it. really exciting journey here and we can improve these wines,
you know, year after year after year. So I want to keep focusing on that really. - But will you, I suppose improving it though, year after year, will you ever nail it? What is nailing it for you? - Oh, to be honest, I don't know. I don't know if I'll ever be out there,
but I think that's probably healthy, right? I think it's not necessarily healthy for my brain, but I think it's probably healthy for my ambition and for the drive. I think it's the same for the whole team here. here. If we can keep improving every year,
there's always little things you learn. And one thing that I love, also if I'm equally depressing about being a winemaker is you get one shot every year, especially if you're like a producer, like Langley,
you're not doing vintage and soft hopping from hemisphere to hemisphere. So I can be here for 50 years and then you get 50 goes at it. So, you know, I might eventually think,
yeah, done it, but what do I do after that? So, you know, we'll see. I love that. I loved it. You know, it's an annual thing and the job has been in role changes throughout the year,
but yeah, one go a year. So, you know, I can't sit here and say, yeah, we've done 11 vintages. I think I've nailed it. I know that I haven't. I know that there are far better one because I don't know me as people I want to learn from,
there's people that inspire me. me hugely and I hope that never stops. Who do you want to learn from? I'd love to go out to Champagne. You know I've talked about the top growers that really inspire me you know such as LeMondier Bernier,
Pascal Agrabar, you know Salos, whether they like have me in to learn I'm not sure you know. know, people I've learned huge amounts from,
obviously Duncan and Daniel Ham, I've got to give them huge amounts of credit, but I tend to read a lot on Growers Champagne and taste as much as I can,
even if I can't go and actually learn directly from them, you know, I'd love to be able to do that. But even if I can't do that directly, if I can sort of do a second -hand knowledge through through reading,
through telling them that I've learned a lot, I'd love to be able to do that. then that's great. We're doing it. I'd love to go out to Felton Road, you know, the top bar dynamic pen and roll producer. Who would? I think, yeah, I think my red wine game needs some improvement and I think that would be some of the best people to learn from and,
yeah, I've got a good relationship with them. So I think that's something that I'd love to do one day as well. What about in England? Who else do you think is getting it right when it comes to... to sparkling wine?
I think there's so many and I think it's it's important that you know when thinking about that sort of thing is It's not just a kid. That's my personal preference You know,
I think what Westwell are doing over in Kent is amazing Also quite like, you know, Tim Phillips and his one -acre wall garden in a new forest making traditional method sparking Wieselink I think that's I think that's great great.
You know, obviously I think what Daniel's doing over offbeat, you know, play around with Colfondes as well and with the Domain Hugo wines, I think they're fantastic and really phenomenal wines and Harrow and Hope are,
you know, probably a little bit more traditional in their winemaking, but you know, really pushing the organic side of things. I think it's really important and their wines are always, you know, consistently.
Some of my favorite wines. so I have to give them a mention as well. You've achieved a lot in your career so far. Is there a sort of pinnacle of where you want to be? Do awards mean anything to you?
You've been named in the 30 Under 30 list, won various other awards. What part does that play in your journey? Yeah, I mean obviously I'm always incredibly grateful to,
you know... awards like that, but I don't really think it necessarily shapes my desire to produce wine really. Also I'm conscious that there's not many people under 30.
I just kind of feel like maybe I shouldn't be winning those awards. I wish there was a bit different and there were more people under 30, so the competition was a bit higher. To the point where you shouldn't necessarily be winning these awards.
awards. You know, sometimes there's not huge amounts of people under 30. So if winning awards like that just inspires more young people to get into the industry from different walks of life,
and we can become more inclusive for everybody, then I think that's fantastic. And I think that's the real purpose and the great thing about these competitions. I think for me with the wines is,
you know, getting listed as a by the glass. or a top restaurant with a really exciting chef sort of thing. That for me means more because if it's a top restaurant,
every producer is trying to get the wines in there. So if in fact they've chosen your wine goes, okay, well, they like the wine and everything's good quality. I was hitting the prices, right? And they're willing to get behind it and back it themselves. I think to me I prefer that than,
you know, points or, you know, blind tasting competitions and stuff. But they obviously will have their place and they're all really important. But from a personal point of view, it's top restaurant listings are.
You talked there a bit about opening up and getting more people, younger people inspired to work in wine. You were mentored, obviously. And what about you mentoring others? Have you got to that stage yet?
I mean, with the expansion of the vineyard here in Langham, we're going to need to bring cellar hands in and new staff in the next few years. And that's something that's really sort of top of my priority list.
I think having grown up in a rural, you know, I'd very fortunate up any, but to still have grown up in like a rural small town, you know, it really says not to have many opportunities unless you want to leave or if you stayed as,
you know, there's not a huge amount. But I think that's what English wine industry can really play a big part in. these rural communities. And I think there's so many small villages and towns in Dorset with young people that probably aren't quite sure what they want to do.
You know, I've never even considered wine to be a career, probably haven't even necessarily tried wine. But actually, I think from the production side of things, like wine's pretty, pretty inclusive and pretty good fun and pretty down to earth.
So I think if we can just kind of somehow showcase that to people. they might be able to think, yeah, that sounds fun. I can be creative. I can do science. I can read on history and geology and play with, you know,
just like marketing and sales. There's so many opportunities within the wine industry. So, you know, whatever your interest is always skill says, you can find a way to apply it within the industry. And, you know,
I'm conscious I'm saying this is like a middle -class white guy, but, you know, there's probably too many of us in the industry, you know, we need to, we need to and get more people from different walks of life involved.
You see in London is probably one of the best food cities in the world. And it's like that because of all the different cultures and backgrounds and people involved with it. Well, imagine if you applied that to English wine.
It can only be a good thing, I think. So, you know, I don't have all the answers on how we get there. But if I can, you know, mentor some young people from different walks of life and different backgrounds and try and inspire them the same way Duncan did to me,
then I think that would have been my biggest achievement. What's the biggest lesson you've learnt in your time in wine? Yeah, just trust my gut,
I think. That's a big one that I learnt from Daniel when I first came up from Sharpen and, you know, playing around with wild yeast ferments. And again,
going into blending as well, you know. Bring the blends that you believe in, if the ferments go dormant and, you know, you're waiting for them to warm up again in the spring to finish off,
you know. Just trust your gut, hold your nerve, that was a big thing I learned from Daniel, really. It was just to be patient and, yeah,
not panic too much. Have you had many of those situations? situations where you've had to panic? - Well, every year, every year, when every year's sort of early March, as it starts to warm up again and the ferments are still dormant,
because with the wild yeast, they'll get sort of two thirds, three quarters of the way through ferment and then December, it gets really cold, they'll just completely stop. And we can't start a second fermentation until the first fermentation's finished.
So I'm always waiting for some feminists to finish in the spring. And yeah, every year I go, I still get a little bit panicky, like what if they don't finish, but yeah.
I think I've been doing it enough now to really trust my gut as Daniel sort of trained me to do. - Do you think that's your biggest challenge?
- It's certainly up there. I think every day there's challenges. but I think trying to make wine that people want to drink is definitely a challenge and consistently want to drink as well.
'Cause there's always someone doing something interesting or cool or better than what we are. So it's just making sure that we're always pushing ourselves. I think that's probably the biggest challenge.
But yeah, relying on the wild yeast is definitely gives me the most amount of stress. stress definitely is a does I want to make a buzz I think it's one of the reasons that our wine just so well received and so distinctive. You talked earlier about sort of experiences of having wines and people can come down and visit them are you open to the public or?
Yeah so we're only close for January and February so from March to end of December we're open Wednesdays to Sundays and so yeah we do talk tastings. We've got a little restaurant on site that does lunch and we do Friday night seafood events,
which is like with live music and stuff. So yeah, it's really good fun. I think, you know, even though I'm in the winery most of the time, I do miss having like people around like customers and visitors that bring such a good buzz and an energy.
And the nice thing about being a sparkling wine maker, is people tend to drink sparkling wine. wine when they're having a good time you know yeah it's not 10 doesn't tend to be if someone's you know really down and sad they're open a bottle of sparkling wine so yeah you don't have a rubbish day at work do you and then go home and open a bottle of bubbly no so it's something just really nice and incredibly
gratifying when you see like all these people all sat on the side having their food and they're all just having a good time drinking the sparkling wine like at the vineyard that we've made but I'm just walking you know to get my lunch or something you know up to the office.
The more I saw these people having a good time and you know drinking drinking the sparkling wine we've made um yeah absolutely love so I do miss having people around so yeah please come to Dorset come and see us.
What about you what's your favorite sort of wine memories but I expect it's probably drinking with other people yeah for sure like Like, I'm super grateful to have grown up in the South West,
you know, getting in the sea as much as I can. But yeah, I've saw many memories of just taking a bottle of wine down to the sea, stick it in some rocks, let it cool down in the sea,
which you go for a swim and get out of your mates, have a barbecue and having a bottle of wine. And it's that sort of conveying reality around it. And that's That's you know, I've got so many memory amazing memories that are quite similar to that And it does all just come back down to the people really you know,
it's the people that make it a peepee drink it with I think it's so important But yeah, I think like standout wine moments, you know, I sort of touched on that the Timothy Strobel bottle We had a paradise row sacred wild that was That was certainly one that was was so vivid.
I think so just changed my my whole viewpoint on sparkling wine and champagne to the point where it's kind of changed the direction of my career and have to put that one down as the pretty important one.
What do you think is next for the sparkling wine movement in England? Yeah, I think we still need to all be creative and push each other,
but also work together as well. And I will... I think we all make wine slightly differently and there's no right or wrong way of doing it. So, you know, English sparkling wine started to drop in the ocean compared to,
you know, likes of Perseco and Carver and Champagne. So we still need to, I think, convince not just the British public, but people worldwide that what we're doing is serious and we are making some great wines.
So it's going to have to be focused on what we're doing. on that growth still. While still being respectful and aware of just how good, you know, other sparkling wines have from around the world.
You know, I don't think we can get too ahead of ourselves. We need to, you know, cautiously put ourselves out there and keep working and improving. So I think from a traditional method sparkling wine point of view anyway,
that's going to be, I think that they've got to be the focus, but I'm really excited, you know, by the emergence of these pet nuts and colfondos. I love colfondos, I love making colfondos. I make colfondos in keg,
so it's like a little sparkling wine on tap. You can have so much fun with that. You know, I think that's where peewee varieties and these, you know, hybrids can really come into their own in a sparkling wine format as well,
because they tend to be much more aromatic and so they're a lot more playful. So yeah, I think now that'd be good find seeing if we can integrate sort of peewee varieties, hybrids into things like cold fondos or even traditional method for those of you that all the producers that are going to go down that route.
I think that's going to be an interesting space to watch for sure. Do you think cold fondos is something that you're going to do at Langham then? So we do it in keg already. Oh, okay. So yeah, I do 20 litre keg.
So yeah, I just do like a second. fermentation in the keg but it's both fermented with wild yeast and it's much lower pressure, it's in about two bars, so it's more of like a spritzed in a full spot. You know,
surf cloudy, it's a bit of fun, usually, you know, try to make it a bit more aromatic. Yeah, I enjoyed that style. And then, you know, we always mix a bit of red wine for our rosé and sometimes,
you know, we end up with a little bit left over and you think, well, do it. but it's just still red or, you know, a colfondo red can be quite a bit of fun. But I see only usually a couple hundred bottles that will go through the tasting room and it sells pretty quick.
But yeah, I think it's a really playful, fun wine style. So it'd be interesting to see, you know, see the growth of that, because I think quite a few producers now are going down that route.
And yeah, again, I have to credit Daniel for teaching me that that style and showing me about it. Did you think those are your sort of favourite stars to make? Yeah,
I just like having fun, you know. I think I love tradition of sparkling wine, that's where my passion is, but obviously it's quite long, it's a long lengthy process. So, you know,
taking cold fondue, which is, you know, a little bit of a faster turn around. The way you drink is just a little bit more chilled as well, I think, just the nature of the wine. So yeah, I absolutely love it. And yeah,
trying to put it into a keek egg was quite good fun as well. What's your favourite food and wine pairing? Do you have, is there an experience that you've had where you've had an amazing? Yeah,
I think there's, I mean, there's, again, a lot of food. So it's quite an easy thing for me to just put food and wine together. I think probably like my,
my two favourite food. is you know a sea line citrus -driven sparkling wine with shellfish like you know prawns, scallops, mussels, oysters and again growing up by the sea in the southwest and having all of that around you know I absolutely love it.
But as a little place called 45 Queen Street in Penzant a year or so ago and instead of an affegato they had pistachio ice cream and then poured Pedro Jimenez over at the top and yeah that was fun that that was really fun so yeah forget vanilla ice cream and coffee it's pistachio ice cream and Pedro Jimenez now.
So funny and all the time I've asked that question I don't think anybody's ever said a sort of dessert cat do you know sort of pairing so it's interesting yeah yeah yeah, that was just one I was like, this is fun.
I think because you're always tasting as well. I think as a winemaker or a chef or whatever, like, you're always tasting. So anything that's a bit different always catches my attention. And I understand you're quite a keen cook as well. Yeah,
I love it. I love it. Yeah, every night I'll get home and I'll just, I was on wine cooking. I'm liking my wife. I like washing up and find that quite therapeutic. So I'm going to make a mess and then I'm lucky that she got to quite enjoys the party.
She said she does. I don't know. Maybe she's just very thankful for the lovely meal that you've given her. Yeah, hopefully. Yeah. Wash down with a nice glass of wine. Yeah, of course. One of the final questions that I always ask on the podcast,
if there was one wine, it's kind of like a desert island wine, I suppose, one wine you couldn't live without. What would that be and why? Yeah, it'd have to be a grocery on pain.
Yeah, I mean, if you wanted to go for an actual producer, I probably had to go Pascal Agrippa, I think. Yeah,
I just, I just find it so versatile, you know, with these really rich, quite, it sounds weird to have been a sparkly wine. You know, you think champagne is obviously,
it's a wine, but actually, yeah, these, these sort of site specific really rich complex, slightly lower pressure sparkling wines. I just, I couldn't live without it. I don't think they just offer so much.
There's way more interesting than anything else. I think there's so many more dimensions going on to it. I think that it's actually got the fizz in it as well. It's just like a whole different texture that you just don't get from, from any other wine.
So, um, definitely be a top, top grow champagne. So what's next for you? Well, we're going through the expansion here at Langham. So I'm focusing on getting a new winery built.
So we'd like to have that ready for harvest in 2025. And then being able to play around with Pinot Gris and these Dijon clones here. So I'm super excited about that. And that's very much my focus.
And then yeah, I'll be sort of launching my own little side project in 2025 so watch this space can't talk too much about that yep that'd be a little something coming out in just over a year's time so that's that's a bit of fun as well but yeah so just like being also just like want to you know travel more and and see other producers and keep building these friendships and networks within the wine industry as well
such It's such a wonderful place to be most of the time, so yeah. - I was gonna ask that, actually, one thing that a lot of people say to me about the English wine industry is it is very sort of collaborative and everybody's very supportive.
Do you find that where you are? - Yeah, 100%. Everyone's pretty open, everyone wants to work together, improve what they're doing, but also I think the more we can do to improve as a collective is only gonna help us.
you know, as a rising tide lifts all ships. And I don't think, you know, that anyone can really argue with that, especially of English, English wine. If one of us does well, it's only going to help everyone else around them.
So I think that's going to be really important going forward. Excellent. Well, Tommy, it's been so lovely to speak to you. I've really enjoyed listening about your wine journey and good luck for the future.
Good luck with the side project. We'll have to have you back on to talk about that once it's up and running. and then I must get down and visit Langham very soon. Yeah you're more than welcome, doors open, doors open to anyone,
come on down. Thanks so much Tommy, take care. It's so lovely to hear from people like Tommy who have such passion for making wine and sharing their knowledge with others.
I'm really looking forward to hearing and tasting more from Langham this year and hope it's enticed you to try some English wine from Dorset. Thank you for tuning into this episode of the English Wine Diaries,
which was kindly sponsored by Wickham Wines. If you enjoyed it, I'd love it if you'd like, subscribe and leave a rating as it helps other people find us. You can catch up with more English wine news over on my Instagram,
just search for English Wine Diaries, and I'll see you in the next one. don't forget to tune in next week when I'll be back with someone whose Swiss connections inspired her to plant a vineyard in Sussex.
Until then, cheers!