General FAQs:
1. What makes Pink & Co. wines unique?
We are a female owned and run company and English Pink, our hugely popular rosé, is grown entirely in England. All our grapes are handpicked and sourced from a single, family owned vineyard. The vineyard is in the best place in England to grow grapes, nestled in the Purleigh Valley our grapes grow in a warmer and drier climate which produces the fresh red berry and watermelon fruit flavours. The vines are some of the oldest in the UK and this results in grapes of outstanding quality, which you need to make rosé. Produced by our very own Master of Wine, Clem Yates, she is one of the few female MW’s in the world and has made wine in many countries, including the South of France.
Our rosé is unlike other English Rosé’s due to its very pale colour and crisp Provence style with many customers believing it must be a French wine.
2. Where are Pink & Co. wines produced?
Our grapes are grown on a family owned vineyard in the Purleigh Valley, Essex. The region has a fascinating history of grape growing starting in Roman times! Our vines are comparatively young, only 40 years old, but this age on the vines help produce the top quality grapes we are looking for to make our English Pink rosé
3. How can I purchase Pink & Co. wines?
English Pink Rosé by Pink & Co can be bought online via our website www.pinkandco.co.uk.
Our Stockists are:
Kilver Court – Shepton Mallet
Bishops Eye – Wells
Oxford Polo Club
No 1 Bruton
The Stay Original Company, Somerset & Dorset
Sitheag, Inverawe
Tisbury Deli, Wiltshire
Hampton Cellars, Hampton, London
Oakham Wines, Rutland
Shappen Stores, New Forest
Aldbury Village Stores, Herfordshire
Harris & Co
We can often be seen at events and have had collaborations with the following:
Boodles Jewellers – Burghley Horse Trials
Bentley Motors – The International Boat Show
AxoparUK – Royal Dart Yacht Club
Badminton Horse Trials
Burghley Horse Trials
Blenheim Horse Trials
Festival of Polo – Beaufort Polo Club
Cowdrey Polo
Shrewsbury Flower Show
Camp Kerala, Glastonbury
Grape Harvesting:
4. When is the grape harvesting season?
Our grape harvesting season very much depends on the weather. The usual harvest time is between September to the end of October. It is a fine art to know when to pick the grapes, as the grapes ripen, we go out into the vineyard and sample the grapes. This is done by tasting the grapes, looking at the colour from the grape skins, measuring the sugar level and watching the weather forecasts! You don’t want to pick after heavy rain as the vines suck up the water and this dilutes the sugar and flavours in the grapes.
5. How do you ensure the quality of harvested grapes?
We ensure the quality of our grapes by working with an equally passionate team in the vineyard and amazing hand pickers. We start picking early in the morning as we have to get the grapes into the winery as quickly as possible to preserve the quality. Handpicking the grapes allows us to select the highest quality grapes and also doesn’t damage the grape berries, which is paramount for making a premium rosé. The grapes are collected in small buckets which then are carefully decanted into larger bins that get driven to the winery. Handpicking is much more gentle on the vines and it keeps their leaves intact, this is really important as the leaves continue to produce carbohydrates which the vine stores so that it has plenty of energy for the start of the following year.
Grape Sources:
6. Where do you source your grapes from?
We source our grapes from a single vineyard in the Purleigh Valley, Essex. After lots of research we discovered that this is the best place in the UK to grow grapes for still wines. The climate is warmer and drier and this enables us to ripen our grapes for a longer period which helps produce the Provence style of rosé we are renowned for.
Production:
6. What winemaking techniques do you use?
Once the grapes arrive at the winery, they are de-stemmed and lightly crushed to release some of the juice. The grapes and juice are then held for a period of time to extract the colour from the skins, this is what gives us the pale pink colour. The grapes are then gently pressed to release the rest of the juice which is then put into a stainless steel tank to ferment. We keep the temperature of the fermentation quite low, this helps retain the aromas of the wine, if our fermentation was too hot we would lose the light and delicate aromas of the red berry fruit. We use stainless steel tanks as they are inert and so the wine shows off all the characters of the grapes.
7. How long is the aging process for your wines?
Once the fermentation has finished we rack the wine into a smaller tank and age it on the fine lees. Fine lees are a term for the dead yeast cells, these yeast cells can’t ferment any more but having the wine in contact with them helps stabilise the colour and builds palate weight and texture. It’s important to do this as our rosé has a very pale colour which would disappear if we didn’t do this. We also have a naturally high acidity and we need to balance out the freshness with the weight and texture of the final wine.
8. Are your wines vegan-friendly or gluten-free?
Our rosé is vegan friendly and we keep the level of sulphates as low as possible, although our wine does contain some.
Company History:
9. When was Pink & Co. established?
We established Pink & Co in September 2019 after a conversation one evening over a few glasses of French rosé. Clem had always wanted to produce a Provence style rosé here in England and as a Master of Wine she was the perfect person to do it.
10. What is the philosophy behind Pink & Co.?
Pink & Co was created to combine friendship, wine and a passion for quality. We love to work with family run businesses, some of whom are female led like us, and promoting British businesses and the English countryside which is close to our hearts.
