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For 20 years the Kemps ran Gifford's Hall Vineyard and developed it into one of the region's leading tourist destinations. They sold up and retired in 2004 but kept three acres of their original vineyard containing the most mature grapes. John built himself a new winery in the winter of 2005 and now boasts a state of the art production centre for his wines and liqueurs.
Despite this they like to stick to some traditional standards. John reckons grapes respond to gentle treatment so they are picked by hand using buckets and secateurs. They still tread their grapes (oh yes they do) to prepare them for the press.
Grape wines
The vineyard contains four main grape varieties - Madeleine Angevine, Bacchus, Reichensteiner and Rondo (a modern red grape used exclusively for rosé wine).
At the moment we are offering mainly our 2006 vintage. August was a bit of a problem but we ended the vintage with some excellent quality grapes with good sugars and well balanced acidity. Only the Rosé and the Harvest Blend come from previous vintages.
Fruit wines
As well as grape wines, we also produce prize-winning fruit wines made from elderflowers, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. We treat these fruits pretty much as if they were grapes, so they are crushed and pressed in much the same way; we use the same yeasts. They are designed to be drunk nice and chilled sitting in the sunshine.
Liqueurs
Our liqueurs are made using real fruit grown locally whenever possible. We do have to stray into Kent for our cherries. There are easier and cheaper ways to make liqueurs but none better. Basically, we steep fresh fruit in pure alcohol. Different fruits are treated and prepared differently, of course. Some are best frozen before immersion in alcohol and they are left in the spirit for varying periods. The longest of all is Sloe Gin. We reckon it takes at least 12 months to make a really good product (two years preferably) so it tends to work out a little more expensive. But worth the wait and worth the money.
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