As the weather warms up – in the UK at least – Patrick Schmitt at The Drinks Business magazine has selected “a fine, fresh white from southwest France that costs £15, but tastes like something selling for double that price.”

With your 25% discount you can buy this for £11.21 per bottle delivered to your door in the UK. Read the full article here.

Pruning is an important element in our vineyard management for the ultimate wine,

Imposing disciplined growth patterns helps vine management, and ensures consistent yields and the healthiest, best grapes possible.  We aim to create even crop loads and a balanced leaf canopy, with enough leaves to fuel the plants, but not so many that the fruit is overly shaded.

We ensure that each vine has the right number of fruitful buds to provide the right crop level, and that the grapes have plenty of aeration to avoid fungal diseases.

At Grand Mayne we use the Guyot System, promoted by Charles Guyot in the 1860s.

This system can have one or two canes and spurs. The canes are tied to wires and the buds on the cane grow in to the vine’s canopy. This results in good leaf exposure for photosynthesis and evenly spread fruit beneath the trellis.

We pride ourselves on using modern techniques, but it’s interesting to see that we still rely on some traditional basics that have been practised for over 150 years.

If you have a spare 120 seconds, take a look at our video of January’s activity at the vineyard here. We may not be allowed to leave our homes, but we can at least imagine being with Mathieu and the team amongst the vines and in the winery.

Test your knowledge and judgement on wine trivia, with our quick wine quiz here. Pour yourself a glass of your favourite wine, as that’s bound to help you get the right answers. Better still, share it with a couple of friends (socially distanced!) and see which of you scores best.  For each of the 28 statements, all you need do is call TRUE or FALSE. Any score over 25 deserves a big pat on the back, or another glass of wine … The answers can be found here.