We Ride at Dawn Red Northern Wine 2024

We Ride at Dawn Red Northern Wine, Dornfelder, Rondo blend, natural wine, fruit from Avonleigh in Wiltshire.  The wine is a blend of approx 60% Dornfelder and 30% Rondo, hand-harvested from Avonleigh in Bradford-on-Avon on 15 & 9 October respectively. Avonleigh is a biodynamic vineyard with a market garden and orchard.  The Dornfelder grapes were destemmed by hand into an open fermenter where they spent five days on the skins before being pressed into barrel. The wine finished fermentation and aged in a 225L barrel on the fine lees for 12 months. The Rondo was direct pressed into a stainless-steel tank where it fermented and aged before being blended with the Dornfelder. The idea is to blend depthand structure with freshness and fruit to create a juicy wine that has layers of flavour and length.  The wine has notes of cherry and strawberry with black pepper and a lovely freshness. A versatile red wine which could go with game in Autumn or chilled with cold cuts in the summer.

Northern Wine is made up of two determined young roaming wine makers, Harry and Stacey (Isn't that a well known TV comedy???). They met doing a harvest in the south of England and soon hit it off and decided that they wanted to make wine for themselves. Stacey came with a wealth of experience having travelled and worked as a wine maker in her native South Africa and beyond. But their next step was a brave one for sure.

Harry hails from the north of England near Kendal and in a bid to return to his roots and start a unique new project, they decided to start making their wine in his home town. But there are surely no vines in the Lake District I hear you say. Well no, but they had established good contacts with growers in the south east and decided to source fruit from southern vineyards but elaborate the wines 'naturally' of course using northern yeasts and environment. Their make shift cellar located in a small warehouse in Kendal provides a good environment for what they want to achieve, high quality natural wines made in the north!

The first vintage of 6 wines, 2 white, 2 orange and 2 red has been an incredible success and most have sold out within weeks.  We secured a few bottles of the delicious Bacchus and stylish Chardonnay.  The wines have a touch of funky northern soul about them and at the same time are very drinkable, relaxed and well balanced.  They show the potential of this new project and the two talented young wine makers at the Helm.