Pre-booked Vineyard Tours

Private tours for groups of 20 - 40 persons by arrangement.

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Mersea Island Vineyard covers some 10 acres of land on south facing slopes. The principle variety of grapes being Muller Thurgau, Ortega, Reichensteiner, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier.

Muller Thurgau, a Riesling/Sylvaner cross developed by Herman Muller of Thurgau in Switzerland.
Produces a flowery, yet acidic white wine. Known to be one of the parent varieties from which the Bacchus grape was derived. 

Ortega a cross of Muller Thurgau, Madeleine Angevine and Gewurztraminer. 
Produces a scented tasty white wine with a slight flavour of mango. 
Any wine with this one in is worth rolling around in the mouth.

Reichensteiner a cross of Muller Thurgau, Madeleine Angevine and Calabresser Frohlich. 
Produces either a dry or medium dry white wine with a 'honeyed' background taste.

Chardonnay a green-skinned grape, it generally produces a soft wine, often with fruity, minerally flavours.

Pinot Meunier a cultivar of Pinot Noir with a slightly higher natural acidity, used to give clearness and fruitiness to Champagne style wines.
 

Dormancy - The period of rest for the vine.
Waking from dormancy. The vine's buds begin to swell. This occurs when the air temperatures reaches about 11C.
Bud Swell - buds become engorged & shed their scaled sheaths.
Bud Break - buds begin to show green. Young, green shoots begin to grow from the buds.
Debourrement - The period between bud break & the appearance of the first flower clusters. Characterized by shoot growth of approximately 25 cm.
Pre-Bloom - During this period all of the shoot's flower clusters are formed and the shoot continues to grow.
Bloom - Occurring at about the time that the air temperature reaches 20C. The individual blossoms loose their caps and begin to self fertilize. Depending on weather conditions the period of bloom can take between 14-21 days.
Fruit Set - About 7 - 10 days after bloom the ovaries of the blossoms that have properly fertilized become small, hard berries. Unfertilised berries fall from the clusters.
First Cover - The vegetative growth that follows berry set.
Ripening of the berries. The fruit begins to soften and change colour. The shoots stop growing and begin to look woody. In many grape varieties the leaves and shoots change colour.
Harvest - The clusters are harvested.
Hardening off - The vine sheds it leaves, hardens its shoots further to prepare for its winter rest and the vine re-enters dormancy.

Freshly harvested grapes are crushed to release their juice (known as must), which is rich in fermentable sugars
Yeasts are used to provoke fermentation
The 'must' is kept in sterile containers until all the sugars have been converted into alcohol
The juice is now wine
The art is making a tasteful product of consistent high quality

Mersea Island Vineyard prepares over 10 000 bottles of wine per year on the premises.
The winery consist of a pneumatic press and stainless steel vats.
Filtering, blending, sterilising, bottling and labelling are performed on the premises.

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