Interview with Offbeat Wine by Fiona Boulton

FB: What's your guys’ ethos when it comes to producing wine under the Offbeat label?

OW: Sourcing fruit from growers we respect and feel are farming responsibly and taking care of the land. Then carefully (and often painstakingly) helping guide the fruit into wines we like to drink ourselves. Everything is fermented spontaneously, not fined or filtered and has no additions including sulphites. I guess you could say our ethos is to produce good wines for good people.

FB: What are some struggles you've come across while building the Offbeat brand?

OW: Initially it was finding Organic/Biodynamic fruit. Thankfully that’s rapidly changing. We also began setting up the winery just as the first COVID lockdown happened, followed by Brexit, and so that brought some challenges. Thankfully we still managed to source a lot of the vessels and equipment we needed but it meant it was really difficult to get out and taste our wines with people. We’re trying to make up for lost time now! Our distributors, Wines Under the Bonnet (@winesutb) have been amazing at bringing people to the farm to see what we’re doing and also organising events around the UK to get our wines in front of people.

FB: Tell us about an exciting project you have coming up!

OW: Due to the challenges with growing grape vines last year we decided to dip our toes into producing some cider. We were lucky enough to get an orchard blend of apples from two unsprayed orchards in Somerset and Devon. The cider fermented very slowly over the winter months and a couple of weeks ago we bottled it with a good dash of skin contact Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay from an amphora and some reserved juice to spark a small bottle fermentation. All being well this will be released in a couple of months.

FB: Are there any special bottles you are sitting on in your cellar? What occasion are you saving them for?

OW: We have some bottles tucked away from the many trips to wine regions over the years. We stashed away a couple of cases of Barolo 2010 from our trip to Piedmont. We’re saving those for a rainy Tuesday in 2040! The other special bottles are mostly from Jura and hopefully we’ll be drinking those a bit sooner!

FB: How do you see the future for Offbeat?

OW: Continuing to do the right thing for the planet whilst spending plenty of time sharing our wines with people and eating good food!