This is an advanced course which builds on the Principles of Sparkling Wine course. There will be an assumed level of knowledge and prior experience. Wine enthusiasts with a background in microbiology and/or chemistry may also find this course of interest.

Tirage is a unique winemaking process for traditional method sparkling wine. It is crucial in determining the flavour, aroma, effervescence and overall quality of sparkling wines, as it significantly influences the development of the wine's unique characteristics. Often challenges are experienced in preparing the yeast for this vital process or during the process of tirage. This course will cover managing each step in the tirage process and what to do if challenges are encountered during the process.

Who Should Attend?
This course is ideal for vineyard managers, viticulture students, winemakers, and operations staff seeking to elevate their vineyard care practical skills and knowledge about key summer vineyard operations.

 Elevate your vineyard management skills with our Advanced Principles of Vine growing – Summer Operations course. Over three days, explore and learn about canopy management including wire lifting and shoot positioning, trimming and leaf stripping. Crop yield management, pest and disease management, yield estimation, fruit sampling and analysis and harvest preparations will also be covered. This course is ideal for vineyard managers, vineyard workers, winemakers, and viticulture enthusiasts seeking to advance their spring vineyard care knowledge and practical skills. Whether you're refining strategies or seeking advanced knowledge, this course equips you with the skills to optimise vine health and crop yield.

 Why Attend?

• Enhance understanding of vine health
• Learn from industry experts
• Hands-on practical training
• Comprehensive spring operations coverage

Who Should Attend?
This course is ideal for vineyard managers, viticulture students, winemakers, and operations staff seeking to elevate their vineyard care practical skills and knowledge about key spring vineyard operations.

Elevate your vineyard management skills with our Advanced Principles of Vinegrowing – Spring Operations course. Over three days, explore and learn about crucial spring tasks such as tying down, wire work, bud rubbing and shoot selection, vineyard floor management and pest and disease management to prepare for managing vines during their critical growth period. Frost mitigation and monitoring will also be covered. Ideal for vineyard managers, vineyard workers, winemakers, and viticulture enthusiasts seeking to advance their spring vineyard care knowledge and practical skills.

Spring marks the start of the growing season and is a pivotal period for vineyard care. Learn about essential spring operations, including tying down, wire dropping, bud rubbing, crown clearing, vineyard floor management, spring cover crops, pest and disease management, petiole and sap analysis, monitoring for spring frost. Whether you're refining strategies or seeking advanced knowledge, this course equips you with the skills to optimise vine health and crop yield.

This course is designed for Winemakers, Operations Managers and Cellar hands, with at least 1 harvest experience. The course aims to develop a greater understanding of fermentation management and evaluate different inoculation and management decisions. This course will also cover malolactic fermentation management and fining techniques and will allow participants to evaluate different fining agents and methods.

This course builds on the Principles of Winemaking course to focus in detail on fermentation and fining techniques. Fermentation is a critical winemaking process, and this course will take a more detailed look into the management of ferments, including dealing with problems that can arise and using malolactic fermentation. The use of fining agents in grape must and wine to manage specific faults and issues will also be covered.

This course is designed for Winemakers, Operations Managers and Cellar hands to learn about systematic preparation of the winery for harvest operations to streamline operations, minimize delays, and ensure a successful harvest season.

Harvest can be a stressful time for vineyards and wineries. This course aims to teach techniques to help students plan for an efficient harvest. It will cover preparing the winery facilities, monitoring fruit ripeness, preparing the laboratory facilities, health and safety considerations, regulations for winemaking and transporting grapes and essential record keeping.

This course is designed for winemakers who want to further their skills in yeast selection to enhance wine aromas and flavours and who are interested in learning about extraction techniques to enhance wine quality. There will be an assumed level of knowledge and prior experience of winemaking. Wine enthusiasts with a background in microbiology and/or chemistry may also find this course of interest.

 The aims of this one-day intensive course are to provide a good level of knowledge and understanding of the benefits of yeast selection on the aromas and flavours in wine. The course also looks at extraction techniques and best practice for established methods and considers new technologies.

 This course builds on the Principles of Winemaking course and is ideal for those with experience of winemaking or have a strong interest in wine chemistry and microbiology

This course is designed for those who wish to learn more about quantitative analysis of juice and wine. It is aimed at individuals from industry looking to upskill their lab analysis and as a follow-on from Principles of Winemaking, where only acidity and sugars are covered.

 Analysis of grape juice and wine is important throughout the wine production process. This course will teach analytical skills to give participants confidence to undertake different assays to assess the levels of key compounds in juice and finished wine, such as alcohol, residual sugar and sulphur dioxide. Quantitative analysis is an important post-bottling stage for wine production to ensure that it complies with legal limits. This course is suitable for individuals who currently or are thinking of working in a Wine Laboratory and those in the industry who want to refresh or upskill the knowledge of lab analysis techniques.  

This course is suitable for anyone who is interested in learning about using digital marketing effectively for all types of Wine Businesses.  

In today’s highly digitised and increasingly competitive online wine space, having the ability to successfully communicate with customers through digital channels can be one of the most important factors determining your success as a wine business. 

The aims of this one-day intensive course are to provide a good level of knowledge and understanding to create a digital strategy for your wine business, as well as learning valuable skills for building your digital following, communicating effectively to engage and convert to sales, optimising your website, working with the analytics that keep you on track, and utilising paid digital marketing. 

This course is ideal for those who are running a wine business or wine tourism venue and would like to develop further their digital strategy and those with an interest in moving into the UK Wine sector.

This course is for new and potential new entrants to the English wine industry. It would also be of interest to wine enthusiasts who want to improve their knowledge of the English sector, businesses and services who wish to market their products to the English wine sector and Business students who want to specialise in the English wine sector. No prior knowledge of the English wine sector is needed.

 Are you interested in learning more about the fastest growing sector in UK Agriculture? Then the Introduction to the English Wine Industry is the course for you.  This 2-day course explores the different facets of the English wine industry including business models, English viticulture practices, climate challenges, English wine styles and distribution models

Wine business owners who are interested in acquiring marketing skills to elevate their wine brand visibility and reach new customer markets. This includes building a brand strategy, using digital channels, creating an engaging brand story, and creating a wine tourism destination / marketing for wine tourism.

Marketing and having a coherent brand strategy is essential for wine businesses. This course focuses on how to build your brand vision and strategy and create an engaging brand story to resonate with consumers. It will help wine businesses to clearly define their target market and use a variety of marketing channels to engage with their audience.

Introduces the winemaking theory relating to the key winery operations: tirage, secondary fermentation, disgorging and dosage.

• Tirage and secondary fermentation
• Maturation and lees aging
• Riddling and disgorging
• Dosage

The aims of this intensive and technical three day course are to provide a good level of knowledge and skills in traditional method sparkling winemaking to those who are making and selling sparkling wine.

Day one - of the course will introduce the winemaking theory relating to the key winery operations: tirage, secondary fermentation, disgorging and dosage.

Day two -  focuses on the start of the secondary fermentation in greater detail, and will involve practical activity related to tirage, including the preparation of cultures and adjuvants.

 
Day three -  will complete the range of operations specific to sparkling wine with practicals and demonstrations associated with disgorging and dosage.

The aim of this five-day intensive course is to provide a good level of knowledge and understanding of vinegrowing to those who wish to start growing grapes, work in a vineyard, enter the wine trade, or have a strong interest in the world of wine.

Each day, vinegrowing theory is introduced in the morning classroom session, then put into practice in the afternoon in the vineyard.

It is based on the seven-day Principles of Vinegrowing course, and enables students to gain a good level of knowledge and understanding of vineyard activities over a short, intense, period of time.

IF YOU ARE LAUNCHING A NEW ENGLISH WINE BRAND, OR WANT TO SELL MORE WINE, THIS IS THE COURSE FOR YOU.

Delivered by Plumpton’s specialist Wine Business lecturers, Paul Harley and Tim Andrews, it will enable you to identify and understand your potential customers and develop the best brand, packaging and routes to market for your wine.  There will be a focus on wine tourism and consumer behaviour, which will enable you to maximise your sales margins.

This workshop is particularly suitable for medium-sized English and Welsh wine producers, both new and established.

The aims of this one week intensive course are to provide a good level of knowledge and understanding of winemaking (oenology) to those who wish to start making wine, work in a winery, enter the wine trade, or have a strong interest in the world of wine. 

During the course, winemaking theory is introduced in the morning classroom session, then put into practice during the afternoon session in the winery.
It is based on the seven-day Principles of Winemaking course, and allows a good understanding of winery activities over a short, intense, period of time.

There will be an assumed level of knowledge and prior experience of winemaking, with a minimum of 1 year harvest experience. Wine enthusiasts with a background in microbiology and/or chemistry may also find this course of interest.

The aims of this one-day intensive course are to provide a good level of knowledge and understanding of the different forms of instability that can occur in wine and practically how best to manage when encountered during the production process. It will also cover maturation techniques to promote wine preservation. 

 This course builds on the Principles of Winemaking course and is ideal for those with experience of winemaking or have a strong interest in wine chemistry and microbiology.