Hello to all out there in cyber land!
New to blogs so this will be my first ever attempt at a blog, hope it is well recieved. Ok, a bit about West Fisher first I suppose would be in order!
The West Fisher Winery was established in 2009 and is the smallest commercial winery in the UK, the only commercial winery currently in Greater London and the only drinks producer in The London Borough of Croydon.
We produce both British & English wines which range from dessert wines, medium to dry whites, medium to dry reds, full bodied rose, dry rose, sweet blush and dry blush. We also sell fruit based wines and liquors which we bring up from Salisbury in Wiltshire from the Fonthill Glebe Vineyard & Winery from a man called John Edgington.
We are members of the United Kingdom Vineyards Association, The South East Vineyards Association, The National Market Traders Federation and active members of Wineskills. We are registered English Wine Producers (smallest commercial producer at the mo) and actively promote English wine whenever we can.
Last year was our founding year and was a mixed bag of success, dissapointment and growth, not necessarily in that order.
Our relationship with the UKVA is a slightly jaded one as we make British wine as well as English wine some members say we shouldn't even be a member while others are secretly talking to us about wine production with imported grapes or juice. Personally I am proud to produce good wines and am moe interested in the wines and the process rather than geography.
Wine Standards Board police the industry and have been very helpful in helping us to set up while on the other hand Croydon Council's Environmental Health Department and Trading Standards were most unhelpfull and frankly couldn't find their way out of a chest high maze!
Our small winery is located in South Croydon and is currently capable of producing around 1000 litres of wine every 6 to 8 weeks. Our production in 2010 was just under 2,500 bottles and we are aiming for 7,500 this year but may well hit 10,000 if the year keeps going the way it has been.
We post regular news updates on our website, http://www.westfisher.co.uk/ and market dates for each month along with special events is also posted on the markets page.
Next major event for us is the "Grow your own" show at Loseley Park on May 1st & 2nd, wines on offer will be our English dry white, British dry red, house white, dessert wine & rose. Also on offer is our locally harvested wine "The Wandle", a light bodied but complex wine well worth a look. Fruit wines on offer will be Apple (a bargain at £5.99), Elderflower & Peach as well as mead, also on offer will be 8 liquors, Blackcurrant, Raspberry, Strawberry, Pomegranite, Cherry, Peach, Apricot & Elderlower.
If you want to grow your own grapes we will also be selling Pinot Noir & Chardonnay grape vines and will be on hand to offer advice on how to plant them and maintain them. If you don;t want the grapes then we can help with that too as we want local grapes for our 3 local wines.
I will update the blog with news and info as and when I can, please follow us on Twitter, facebook or our own website.
kindest regards to all
Simon Fisher
