English Sparkling Wine Harvest With The Munchkins!
A Grape Day Out For All The Family!
A’Becketts Vineyard provides the perfect place to keep the whole family busy and entertained. Nestled amongst the most idyllic scenery, adults and children alike can well and truly get green (or red!) fingered, as they take part in one of the most interesting and satisfying pastimes - all whilst absorbing the fresh air!
Here is an account of just why you should give the spectacular vineyard a visit…
Usually, by mid-week of half term…
we would have been contemplating an action-packed day such as exploring the local delights of Haynes Motor Museum or even a trip to the coast. However, today was going to be different and potentially quite a challenge with three lively boys in tow (aged between six and eight) as we were heading off across Salisbury Plain to help the team a'Becketts Vineyard to get this year's harvest of Pinot Noir in before the rains.
Cat and I looked at each other and then at the rows and rows of unharvested vines before us. Normally we'd make light work of this but how on earth were we going to keep these boys engaged and make decent progress? "OK boys" declared Cat, "We've missed the briefing so we're going to have to try to catch the others up!" We glanced at the ladies in the row beside us, they were at least one third the way down their line already, conversing contentedly as they snipped so the race was well and truly on! Cat and her boys took one side and Harry and I opted for the other.
Visitors even get the chance to see the machinery in action…
Amazingly…
we all fell into a natural rhythm pretty quickly, working like clockwork with the mums picking and the children placing juicy bunches into small grey plastic crates dotted at intervals along the rows. Then the boys spotted little blue tags and so the game morphed into a treasure hunt. Despite the best efforts of the loud gas-powered bird scarer that was in the habit of sounding off unexpectedly at various points in the day, bird strike has been quite a problem for Lyn and husband Paul this year, so they had resorted to netting the delectable Pinot Noir grapes until the sugars and acid levels were deemed optimal for harvesting. Each net had to be secured down with tape and once the covers had been pulled off earlier that morning, bright blue biodegradable tags inevitably ended up strewn across the vineyard. "That's really great for the environment" proclaimed Harry, who had been captivated by the recent climate change speeches of Greta Thunberg. "Let's help collect them all up!" enthused Lucas and off the Three Musketeers went, scrabbling among the undergrowth to gather each and every piece of special tape ... stuffing them into pockets, counting and comparing scores as they went.
All smiles after an action-packed day of getting back to nature…
Another hour positively flew by…
and we were in the lead, all apart from Richard (the seasoned Vineyard Hand) would was wired-for-sound and already on his second row. More tags were added to new found pocket space but now our mini harvest team had evolved somewhat and new quality control measures were starting to kick in. While the mums picked the bunches, one child on each side would gently place the fruit into the crates while the third child would manually sort the bunches ... removing errant woodlice or leaves but, far more crucially as in the finest Grand Cru vineyards, removing any unripe grapes or those with any signs of noble rot.
Lynn, an experienced mum and foster mum to many, had advised us to bring packed lunches for the boys as children don't always go a bundle on vegetable soup, even if it is homemade. They munched eagerly on their sandwiches but were visibly tantalised by wafts of the grown up fodder. In due course, corners of baguette were enthusiastically dipped into cups of hearty tomato and mixed vegetable soup "… and all grown here on the estate" affirmed one of the ladies helping to serve the twelve-strong contingent of pickers for the day. Twenty is usually optimal at a vineyard of this size so today's was an unusually low turnout which meant that the pressure was on.
True to form…
pudding was a real treat for us all: Lyn's special recipe chocolate fudge cake neatly cut into twelve chunky wedges and delicious rhubarb crumble of the house. We saved our soup spoons to economise on the washing up effort and eagerly passed around the final course of our harvest feast before, with full tummies and a mildly soporific air about us all, the workforce ambled back to their respective rows to commence afresh.
We all knew our roles now and got quickly back up to speed. However time ticked on, the air grew noticeably cooler and the strength of the sun began to fade as we all blistered our way up and down the remaining few sparsely cropped rows - with the children merrily pushing half-filled crates between gaps in the planting, until it was time to down tools and call it a day. "Owwwww!" chorused the children when we confirmed that it was time to stop. "When can we go grape picking again please!" asked Lucas, with a visible glimmer in his eye. "... that was sooooo much fun!"
When we returned to the yard, we saw that Lynn had saved her best box of chocolates for us all to share, as we signed out at the clipboard at the back of the truck and handed in our trusty shears together with what the boys concluded was a grand total of 447 biodegradable blue tags.
Needless to say, the journey back home was significantly more restful. After a full day of fresh air and exercise we were all contentedly exhausted. We kept ourselves occupied doing mini mental arithmetic challenges such as working out that if there were 100 vines planted in every row and on average they were yielding the equivalent of 80 bottles of wine per line, at an average bottle price of £25 then just our little team had probably picked something in the region of £8,000's worth of wine ... not bad going at all for two mums and three youngsters we thought, as we chased the setting sun all the way home.
So…
if you are on the hunt for a fun-filled family day out over the Christmas period, then look no further! The vineyards, that span just over 11 acres and directly adjoin the ground of Dauntsey's School in West Lavington, provide the perfect place!
Photographer credit: Drinks Network