Verjuice is made by picking unripe grapes. Unfortunately, these grapes are normally a waste product in every other vineyard. However, our vineyard at Westmeston Estate was planted to produce high quality grapes which 100% of which can used in the production of English Sparkling wine.

Traditionally, to achieve the best grapes, it is common practice by wine producers to ‘Green Harvest’,. This means picking the smaller and weaker bunches at, or before Veraison (the time when the grapes are starting to mature, turning from green to red, when their acid levels are at an optimum and the sugar levels are still low).

Pruning the grapes at this stage for wine production enables the vine to put its energy into the remaining grapes and bunches. The green harvest is cut and dropped onto the ground and eventually mulched into the surrounding soil.

What a waste!

All that effort, water, resource and expense of growing grapes, only to drop them on the ground which in turn also makes the surrounding soil more acidic over time.

Surely, we could do something with this ‘waste’ product?

Low and behold, there was Verjus (or Verjuice), which has actually been around for centuries. There are reports that the Romans struggled to grow grapes in England, so they created Verjuice as a replacement for lemons, limes and wine vinegars. According to historians, even mustard was originally made using verjuice as opposed to wine vinegar and some people still make it that way. Give it a try.

From the early days of picking a small green harvest, trialling varietal, white and red Verjuice, we elected to produce a blended version with both our own grapes which have been specifically grown for our delicious Verjuice, but also with the green and unripe harvests from our neighbours in Southern England, that would otherwise be considering 'waste product'.

After a few years of trial and error, our entire harvest of Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes go into the production of the first and only English Verjuice.