Bumper Grape Harvests Expected at Successful Local Vineyards

Published on: 9 Sep, 2016
Updated on: 14 Sep, 2016

Grapes grown on the North Downs near Guildford, such as these, can thrive and produce award winning wines

Abundant Greyfriars’ Pinot Noir grapes, grown on the North Downs near Guildford, due to be harvested in a few weeks

Two local vineyards are reporting potential bumper harvests this autumn.

Greyfriars Vineyard, on the southern slopes of the Hog’s Back near Puttenham and The Albury Organic Vineyard, also on the chalky North Downs slopes, near the Silent Pool, by Albury, are both excited about their grape yield, due to be harvested in a few week’s time.

Mike Wagstaff of Greyfriars said: “Despite the continual rainfall at the start of the year, the second half has turned out to be a good year for grapes. As a result, it’s looking like we will have another bumper harvest.

“The vineyards are looking spectacular and the vines are healthy, happy and most importantly they are bulging with large bunches of beautiful grapes which are clean as a whistle, free of all disease.”

Mike’s wife Hilary added: “Obviously a wonderful warm Indian Summer would be perfect for the grapes over the next few weeks. We can always hope!”

Sunrise over Greyfriars vineyard

Greyfriars are still building up towards a targeted peak production around 2020 of around 100,000 bottles a year.

Already their winery team have been busy this year bottling “a whopping” 54,000 bottles in a four day period, of wine made in previous years.

Mike added: “The trial of our potential new bottling line has been a fantastic success and our newly dug chalk cellar is 99% complete. We are excited that we will be able to start using the “cave” in the very near future.”

Greyfriars Vineyard was recently featured in the Daily Mail by top wine critic Matthew Jukes in his, “Guide to the Best English Wines”. He said: “The 2013 Blanc de Blancs and the 2013 Classic Cuvée (both £24.00) impressed me mightily.”

The vineyard has a free open day as part of Heritage Weekend tomorrow (Saturday, September 10) running from 10am-4pm. This is a completely free event. Wines can be tasted on a deck overlooking the vineyards.

The excitement of the forthcoming harvest is shared equally by Albury Organic Vineyard which is featuring in the visit programme for the delegation from Guildford’s twin town Freiburg (they produce wine too).

The Freiburg delegation will be offered tastings of Albury Vinyard’s gold-award winning Albury Estate sparkling wines Classic Cuvee and Blanc de Blancs, as well as their rosé wines.

A beautiful view of Albury Organic Vineyard on the slopes of the North Downs

Nick Wenman, vineyard owner said: “We are very excited about our harvest this year at Albury as it looks like there’s some fantastic fruit on the vines.

“We have battled the downy mildew caused by the changeable weather conditions over the last few months and can’t wait to make some fantastic organic wines from this year’s harvest.

“It’s hard to conquer disease on an organic vineyard without the use of systemic chemicals but our loyal wine club members have been helping us remove affected leaves and fortunately very little fruit has been affected by the mildew.

Nick Wenman, Albury Vineyard owner, examines the green harvest.

“In addition, our ‘green harvest’ in August involved picking some grapes early to better ripen those left on the vine which will result in premium quality fruit. Although no good for wine at this stage, we used the juice from these grapes (known as ‘verjus’) to make a delicious cordial so nothing is wasted.

Having achieved gold and silver international awards for our still and sparkling wines this year, it’s really important for us to continue making organic wines of the highest quality and we have no doubt that the wines produced from this year’s harvest will be just that. “Quality not quantity” as our vineyard manager Alex says!”

And the value of the manager’s view seems to have been borne out. Just last night (September 8) the vineyard won an award at the Surrey Life Food and Drink Awards.

Lucy Letley, in charge of marketing and events, said: “We are absolutely delighted and so proud to have been judged Producer of the Year.

“We strive to produce top quality wines from grapes grown organically in our beautiful vineyard and we are thrilled to be recognised in this way. The support we have received from the local community, and from other Surrey businesses who promote our wines is overwhelming, thank you!”