The Long Family – Blue Aurora, English Blueberry Wine
The story of Blue Aurora, English Blueberry Wine begins at Lutton farm; a family run farm situated on the border between Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.
The Long family have been farming at Lutton since 1961. Lutton Farm was originally a livestock and arable farm with a small 3ha pick your own fruit farm and has now developed into a commercial soft fruit farm supplying the UK’s premium supermarkets.
In 2018, blueberry production at Lutton Farm increased to picking over 500 tonnes in a year. Through the grading process this then typically produces between 15-20% “waste”.
The waste is often fruit that is either slightly too small, too soft or too pink for the supermarkets, but otherwise it is still great quality, great tasting fruit! This is where the idea to diversify and take the bold leap into the wine world came from.
Throughout the whole process, the Long’s wanted to maintain the integrity of the beautiful blueberries and that’s why the wine is not mixed with any grape juice and it is purely and simply 100% pressed English blueberries.
There are three wines in the Blue Aurora range; Dusk, Midnight & Ice. All of which are vegan and gluten free.
In November 2020 the family were over the moon to be awarded 3 medals at the Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards in the Artisan Local Drink of the Year Category. Both the Dusk and Midnight receiving bronze awards and our Ice wine scooping the coveted Gold award.
Dusk is a crisp, fresh and deliciously fruity medium dry blueberry wine. It goes brilliant alongside antipasti, tapas or slow cooked lamb.
Midnight is an intense, oaky and beautifully rich blueberry wine. It goes great with steak, mushroom risotto or to accompany a cheese board.
Finally, the Ice wine is a sweet dessert style wine, made by pressing frozen blueberries. It is intense, fruity and velvety smooth and goes brilliantly alongside cheese, chocolate desserts, or added to sparkling wine or served on the rocks as a fantastic digestif.
The wines are all available online at www.blueaurorawine.co.uk and stocked at the seasonal Farm Shop in Lutton which will be back open again mid January. Amps Wine Merchants (Oundle), the Dovecote Buttery (Kettering) and Johnsons Of Oldhurst (Huntingdon).
The Longs are keen to find more Northamptonshire based stockists, so please do get in touch with suggestions for where you would like to see Blue Aurora stocked.
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