A more exciting Spring frost season than usual, with weeks of nervous nights of half-sleep, punctuated by neurotic-hourly-checking of the temperature at our nearest internet-enabled weather station (it's at Combwich, 2 miles away) and then getting up with the dawn to see how the buds have survived for ourselves. We've had three air frosts since the buds swelled, on 17th, 20th and 28th April, but only down to minus 1C. Some buds got frizzled at the bottom of Frost Corner, in the lowest 3 bays of the lowest six rows, but not enough of them to have a noticeable effect on the yield. We always have to thin the shoots a bit anyway and the frost has done it for us at the bottom there. Never dull, growing vines in England. Tonight is the last night of forecast frost risk though.

It's been worse on the continent with dramatic scenes of vineyards lit by "bougies" to create a protective blanket of smoke. Photo below right tweeted by @Didier_Pierson from Champagne on 28th. Reportedly they had minus 6 in the Loire valley. That's enough for serious damage, especially as the shoots will have been more advanced. Feel for them, after all the work of winter pruning and expectation as the vines sprung to life. It’s a whole-crop-threatening event.

Meanwhile budburst here has been slo-mo. First buds came out early on April 18th. Only 2012 and 2013 have been earlier in our 29 vintages, with 2007 and 2015 on the same date. But these cold nights have made the vines teeter, very sensibly, on the brink of diving into full leaf and they are mostly still pink buds with the first leaf slightly separated. The upshot is we are back to a normal-to-slightly-late start.

We had a great time on 22nd and 23rd at a wine festival for Austrian, Swiss, Hungarian and English small vineyards held by international art gallery Hauser & Wirth at their Somerset base, Durslade Farm, Bruton. The English contingent was us and Wraxall Vineyard from near Shepton Mallet. The first day was meeting the other producers - amazing how quickly the conversation turns to finding the right words for powdery mildew when vine growers of different languages get together - and wine professionals, followed by an excellent dinner, open to the public, by the resident caterers, Roth Bar & Grill. We had their trademark Asado of Lamb, a whole lamb cooked over a fire-pit. It was spectacularly delicious and so were the accompanying Austrian wines, introduced with great panache by Anne Krebiehl MW (@anneinvino). Saturday was for the public, the sun came out and a jolly time was had by all.

Last week we were delighted to take new supplies of our “Jane’s 14” down to Dorshi, a new East-Asian-but-with-local-ingredients restaurant tucked away in a little alley named Chancery Lane, off the main street in Bridport. Stopped for lunch of their steamed and fried dumplings and salads which were another fantastically delicious discovery. Who knew they grow quinoa in Hampshire? We originally met Radhika and Jollyon at River Cottage a couple of years ago. Great to see their new restaurant thriving. A few pics below.

Followed by a REALLY busy Mayday bank holiday weekend here, when the sun came out, loads of people wanted cases of local wine and we were rushed off our feet behind the scenes labelling to keep up. Well, I was. Iain was maintaining his normal serenity chatting to customers over the tasting glasses. Our little PayPal card readers were proving their worth in keeping track. We still manage without a till. It feels more like sharing our lovely wines with friends - well we think they're lovely and often vineyard visitors become friends - and we like it like that.

A couple of great West Country tasting events coming up. We're in Bristol for the SWVineyards Association trade and public tasting this Thursday, 5th May. This year it's part of Bristol Food Connections so is getting lots of extra publicity. it's at The Boardroom in St Nicholas St., details here>>. Then on 25th May, Kelli and Matthew of the Wine Shop Winscombe are holding a tasting at The Railway Inn, Sandford for World Wine Day and English Wine Week, featuring most of the burgeoning number of Somerset and North Somerset vineyards. We'll be there too.

Oh and as usual we'll be open every day here for English Wine Week, 28 May - 5th June. We're releasing our Leonora's 2014, and maybe, if we think it's really ready, our limited edition Barrel Matured 2014. You can also try a sneak preview of Elizabeth's 2015. Why not pop down and try them all? You can bring a picnic if the weather's nice and buy a cold bottle to go with it. Details on our Visit webpage>>.

We have at last sorted out special buttons on our Shop web-pages so Somerset orders can get their free case delivery and still  be paid for easily online. Have a look here >> and click through to the "Read more/Buy" pages.

Join our mailing list to get our extremely rare newsletters here>>. We might do another one before too long...