The challenges of producing English wine
It’s not easy growing grapes in the north, but earlier this month showed it isn’t easy growing them anywhere in the UK. The late frost hit many vineyards across the regions in a devasting way. It is truly so sad to see such hard work given over to two nights of challenging weather.
At Dunesforde, we didn’t come away unscathed. 50% of our vines were badly affected by the frost. We do as much as we can by spraying the vines in the lead up. It is particularly tough as we were seeing such a great start to the season. The days were warm and dry, encouraging the buds to burst into life. Then suddenly two nights of frost and the leaves curl up and the buds die away. On days like this you ask yourself, why did I get into this business?!
On the positive side however, we are now seeing what we’d hope for under these circumstances – secondary growth.
New buds are appearing and the weather is on our side. We’ve had some rain, ideally we’d like some more, and the sunshine is bringing on the new growth. We now need a good summer to continue this growth and give the grapes a chance to ripen ahead of harvest in the autumn. Those vines that were not affected were in the higher parts of the vineyard. Our slope really helped us. However, across the vineyard it is important to ensure the ground is clear of vegetation, with clean, firm earth below the vines. The crowns should be kept as high as possible and we found some of the upright canes were clear of frost damage.
Looking ahead, to address the issue of frost in the future we’re considering our options. Do we continue with the anti-frost water sprays but leave ourselves exposed to the risks? Or do we find another way? Some vineyards light bougie candles and vineyards managers stay up through the night watching out for any potential incident. This isn’t for us. Something we are exploring are electric cables along the vine trellising. It’s a big investment, but we need to make the vineyard sustainable for the future, so that all our team’s, and that of our volunteers’ hard work isn’t wasted.
Let’s hope we get something out of the 2020 harvest. We remain optimistic.