Grapes grown
  • Bacchus
  • Muller Thurgau
  • Reichensteiner
  • Pinot Noir
  • Seigerrebbe
  • Huxelrebe
  • Phoenix
    Wines produced
  • White wines
  • Sparkling wines
  • Red and Rose wines

    • Three Choirs Vineyard


    Newent Gloucs GL18 1LS
    OS Grid Reference: Hereford Sheet: 715290

      Facilities

    • Self-guided tours
    • Shop
      li>Restaurant
    • Brewery
    • Hotel
    • Facilities for disabled persons
    • Winery
      Wine maker Martin Fowke
    Three Choirs was named after the Three Choirs festival, held tri-ennially in Worcester, Hereford and Gloucester cathedrals. The vineyard was planted in 1973 and has now grown to 65 acres and an output of 250,000 bottles. The winery makes wine for most off the Severn Valley vineyards and produces 'own label' brands for many organisations. Now a major tourist centre. Three Choirs also have their own Internet site

    Three Choirs- features

    Three Choirs has progressed far from the small vineyard housed in old farm buildings up a winding track. The current set-up is profitable, but financially complex. Oldacre Feeds have invested over £1million in land and new buildings on the main road, allowing them to tap into the tourist market and to entice over 40,000 visitors a year to the shop and restaurant. Oldacres rent the winery and land to Three Choirs. The vineyard manager is contracted to produce grapes at an agreed price for the winery. Martin Fowke, the winery director, produces the wine and sells it to the shop and restaurant (about 25% of production) and to the retail trade. Contracts from Asda, the International Wine Society and other supermarkets result in a constant demand for new blends and products. This in turn means that the winery keeps most of its production in tank so that blends can be created as required and that little 'old stock' has to be sold off cheaply as happened in the past.

    The imploding winery

    The winery is a 'state-of-the-art' building, designed with food inspectors breathing down the builders necks. The original specification called for a virtually air-tight building with gas detectors. The first fermentation resulted in the Carbon Dioxide setting off the detectors, so extractor fans were installed. The first use of these almost caused the building to implode, as air whistled in through weaknesses in the doors and windows to replace extracted air.

    The winery

    The winery has viewing facilities to allow visitors to watch the wine making process, as well as a separate picture exhibition and film show to allow them to see the yearly work cycle. The bottling line in its almost sealed room can be viewed from the tasting room . Within the winery itself is a labelling line that can either be attached to the bottling line, or can be run separately.

    Reflections in the vineyard

    The vineyard has now expanded over a former orchard alongside the main road. Currently there is experimentation with reflective sheets to increase heat available to the vines. Martin Fowke believes in labelling his wine as 'estate grown' so needs more home-grown grapes to satisfy demand. The company ae also looking for partnerships to grow grapes and to satisfy the growing demand

    1001 ways to use a tractor

    Three Choirs have developed various tractor fittings to aid the maintenance of the vineyards. One of these is to summer prune the surplus growth on the vines. In this particular picture, the Huxelrebe was being pruned - not the most popular crop. It was described it as being prone to frost, always looking sick, thick skinned , unwilling to free-flow in the press and with juice that clogs the filters every 10 minutes. Unfortunately , the public love the wine !

    Food and Wine

    Bean and Bacon SaladRoast PorkPork and prunesAlmond and cranberry flan
    Welsh border region