The Vineyard Diaries

2008 Harvest at Welcombe Hills

If 2007 was a difficult year, 2008 proved even more challenging!

The weather over the summer was certainly not kind, with the rain reducing the fruit set significantly and the lack of sunshine limiting the ripeness of the grapes. Given the similarity in terms of weather conditions between 2007 and 2008, it seemed reasonable to assume that the final harvest would prove similar: namely, a reduced but promising yield from all our grape varieties. Certainly, in terms of quantity this was true, but in most other respects there were few parallels. Although the grapes eventually ripened the acid levels remained stubbornly high. Deciding that we did not want to compromise on quality, we produced only a tiny amount of red wine exclusively from the Pinot Noir Precoce. All of the Pinot Noir, we concluded, would be ideally suited to making a sparkling blush. This, of course, will not be ready for drinking until 2012, but we are already quite excited about how the wine might turn out! The white grapes proved rather more straightforward, with the Bacchus looking more promising!

We picked the grapes over five weeks, and as each parcel or grape variety ripened in turn, we invited a different team of pickers to come and help us. For the first time, some of the holders of our “Rent-a-row-of-vines” gift vouchers took us up on the offer to spend a morning of hard labour in the vineyard and then share a vineyard lunch!