Holly's Garden Uber Brut NV

These days the free run juice is allowed to oxidise and is fermented mostly in large old oak, with a small proportion in tank and inoculated with approximately 5 per cent of the recommended dose of QA23 (a vinho verde isolate, which produces a delightful tang). The low dose is used so that we get a long slow fermentation with a large number of generations of yeast. In this way, the yeast begins to find the ethanol toxic and produces mucyl polyproteins and gucyl polyglycerides.

Kate Goodman assisted with the pressing cycle, which we still use. The early vintages were tank fermented using EC1118 (safe yeast). The dry wine was sent to small old oak with no added sulphur to go through malolactic fermentation.The components in larger old oak are inoculated with small amounts of fermenting juice from the tank fermentation. They run a ‘solera’ of sparkling base in large old-oak, which contains wine from each vintage going back to 2OO7. This gives important complexity to the final product.