London winery Renegade has rounded up a series of attempts – some more successful than others – at home disgorging after launching a charitable challenge with bottles of sparkling Grenache.
The urban winery had planned to launch its sparkling Grenache as a finished wine this month for £26 a bottle. However, on a “whim”, it instead decided to launch a disgorging challenge, reducing the price of a bottle to £24 and donating 10% of all sales to Hospitality Action.
Renegade has produced 1,000 bottles of the red sparkler, which is made from grapes grown in Valencia that were hand harvested and brought to London in refrigerated trucks.
To purchase the fizz, which is also available for £43 for two bottles or £57 for three, and take part in the challenge, click here.
Customers are invited to riddle (the process whereby the lees flocculates and falls to the neck of the bottle) and disgorge (where the yeast sediment is extracted from the bottle) at home, and are provided with a set of instructions.
Speaking to the drinks business earlier this month, founder of Renegade, Warwick Smith, said that coronavirus had “massively” affected his business. The winery sells 85% of his wines to the on-trade and is listed in restaurants including SomSaa, Sketch, Kricket, Angela’s, The Frog Hoxton, the London Shell Company and Lyon’s.
Renegade only sells 5% to the off-trade and in an effort to bolster business, is now offering next day delivery via DHL.The sparkling Grenache project is therefore a way to both support Renegade, as well as the restaurants it supplies.
So, without further ado, here are a selection of successful and failed attempts at do-it-at-home disgorging, featuring someone in a bath, an impressive piece of headgear and a woman bravely wearing white.
