Evening with partners at the Henley Golf Club

Tue, Mar 29th 2016 at 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm

Jan Mirkowski - Fairmile Vineyard


Adding to Henley's Spakle

Henley Rotary Club's 'Fifth Tuesday@ meeting, to which partners and other guests are invited, was hel at the club's former regular venue, Henley Golf Club.                                                                                              Guest Speaker was local viticlturist Jan Mirkovski, who told his audience how he had turned a hobby into a carrer when he boua plot of land in 2012, on the right hand side of the Oxford road going out of Henley. Having spent 30 years in industy, holding several important posts with responsibilities for environmental legislation, hehad been making wine in an airing cupboard ever sinse he had had his first house and moved from Marlow to Henley when he decided to concentrate on the vineyard.                                                        After fencing off the field to keep out the deer and rabbits, as well as preparing soil by growing winter mustard, he planted 12,000 vine rootstocks in 2013 and the first harvesting of the grapes was carried out in autumn of 2015, when they were sent to a winery in Hampshire. The first bottles of sparkling wine should go on sale by spring 2018.                                                                                                                                                      The French vines grafted on American rootstocks were 40 per cent Chardonnay, 40 per cent Pinot Noir and 20 per cent Pinot Meunier, the same varieties used in the Champagne region of France and the seven-and-a-half-acre site where they were planted out had a similar soil type.                                                           Although they are all white grapes, two have red skins and he therefore also hopes to be able to make Rose sparkling wine. They symbol of the vineyard is and oar (representing Henley) crossed with a bottle of sparkling wine. Mr Mirkowski showed photgraphs of how the vines were originally planted, using accurate setellite navigation for perfect positioning on the steep slope.
Pruining of the vines usually starts in January on St.Vincent's Day, who isthe patron saint of wine. The speaker stressed his commitment to sustainability by allowing grass and wild flowers to groe, as well as putting up bat boxes and owl boxes.                                                                                                                    A long-term aim was to build a winery on the lower field, he said, but his first priority was tp market the wine arriving from the Hampshire winery in 2018. He suggested that much wouldbe sold locally, following which Will Busher proposed vote of thanks

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