WINE OF THE WEEK
Blue Aurora - Blueberry Ice Wine 2022
Nose: dark berries and red fruits with a delicate hint of candied violet and rose petal.
Palate: velvety smooth and devilishly pure, ripe berry notes reminiscent of kirsch or blueberry.
Made from: 15 different varieties of Blueberries
12.5%
Ice wine, English and made with blueberries not grapes!
We stumbled across this beauty when our team travelled to Cumbria to cater a wedding last year. We just had to make a stop at the stunning Tebay Service station. Here we discovered our first bottles of blueberry ice wine, we grabbed a couple of and bought them home to share at HQ, winning everybody over instantly!
The Long family have been farming at Lutton since 1961, originally a livestock farm with a small 3ha pick your own fruit farm, situated on the border between Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, just outside the picturesque town of Oundle.
In 1991, Lutton Farm was converted into a commercial soft fruit farm supplying the UK’s premium supermarkets. By 2018, blueberry production at Lutton Farm increased to picking over 500 tonnes in a year. Through the grading process they produce between 15-20% “waste”. The waste is often fruit that is either slightly too small, too soft or too pink for the supermarkets, but otherwise it is still of great quality and just as delicious! This is where the idea to diversify and take the bold leap into the wine world came from.
Brothers Stephen and James Long who have been farming since 1981, sent their first batch of blueberries to a winery in 2018 to begin the experimentation phase of the project. Working with experts in the wine field and lots of trial and error, the first bottles of Blue Aurora, English blueberry wine and blueberry ice wine were successfully bottled 7 months later.
Loading frozen blueberries directly into the press by hand, these bullet-like berries take some force. The higher pressure brings the flavour, colour and sweetness out, leaving water behind as ice in the berry. This pressing program takes between 2 1⁄2 to 3 days, releasing more juice as the berries start to defrost. Each bottle contains 2kg of frozen blueberries.
Throughout the whole process, the brothers wanted to maintain the integrity of the beautiful blueberry and that’s why the wine is not blended with grape juice at all. It is purely and simply 100% English blueberry and absolutely delicious!
Grab yourself a bottle via the link below or pop into the restaurant.
copy: Zouba & Becki
images and film: Becki