Vineyard January 2025

Historic vintage

Charles Palmer Vineyards are blending the new with the old in East Sussex.

Two Companies. One Mission.

Delivering a complete suite of services for all your vineyard needs.

Who We Are?

Whether you’re starting your vineyard journey or looking to enhance your production, Croxford Wine Estates and Nene Valley Winery offer a seamless partnership to meet all your vineyard needs. Together, we provide a full suite of services that guarantee success from vine to wine.

What We Do?

Vineyard establishment

Vineyard management

Under-vine herbicide spraying / grass strimming

Machine harvesting

Winemaking, bottling, disgorging

Storage and distribution

info@croxfordwineestates.co.uk

info@nenevalleywinery.co.uk

www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk

VINEYARD

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EDITORIAL

Editor: Rebecca Farmer vineyard.ed@kelsey.co.uk

Features: Malcolm Triggs

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Jo Legg Flair Creative Design jo.legg@flair-design.co.uk

ADVERTISING & MARKETING

Jamie McGrorty 01303 233883 jamie.mcgrorty@kelsey.co.uk

PHOTOGRAPHER

Martin Apps www.countrywidephotographic.co.uk

MANAGEMENT

DIVISIONAL MANAGING DIRECTOR: Steve Kendall

PUBLISHER: Jamie McGrorty

RETAIL DIRECTOR: Steve Brown

SUBSCRIPTION MARKETING MANAGER: Claire Aspinall

PRINT PRODUCTION MANAGER: Kelly Orriss

DISTRIBUTION

Distribution in Great Britain: Seymour Distribution Limited 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT Tel: 020 7429 4000 www.seymour.co.uk

Distribution in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Newspread Tel: +353 23 886 3850

Kelsey Media 2025 © all rights reserved. Kelsey Media is a trading name of Kelsey Publishing Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden except with permission in writing from the publishers. Note to contributors: articles submitted for consideration by the editor must be the original work of the author and not previously published. Where photographs are included, which are not the property of the contributor, permission to reproduce them must have been obtained from the owner of the copyright. The editor cannot guarantee a personal response to all letters and emails received. The views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor or the Publisher. Kelsey Publishing Ltd accepts no liability for products and services offered by third parties.

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vineyards that welcome visitors as part of a

business plan, the well-respected business, South East Forestry, can open up woodland walks to provide an additional attraction.

seemingly unending growth of the industry continues with more planting planned for 2025 and beyond.

Features

New facility to drive wine industry performance and excellence

Campden BRI has opened the doors to a new, world-class wine services laboratory and testing centre. 14

20

Historic vintage

Charles Palmer and his family moved to Winchelsea in 1998, taking on the lease of the 750 acre estate from the National Trust.

Frosty reception

Frost hits when the new growth is at its most vulnerable. Measures taken to mitigate frost are traditionally divided into three categories; active, passive and chemical.

Sparkling atmosphere

An extra hall, new exhibitors, exciting English and Welsh wines to taste and a sparkling atmosphere combined to make the Vineyard & Winery Show another spectacular post-harvest celebration

From the editor

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep.”

These few lines of poetry are very beautiful and brought to mind the winter scenes across vineyards in England and Wales when the winter sun provides awe inspiring colours. It is often a moment in time that is shared only by the vineyard worker, a special canvas that nature paints just briefly before the scene

The poet however also points to the journey beyond the beauty and this makes me reflect on a recent experience. The third Thursday in November has been something that has been recognised in my household since I was a very young child and my dad always made wine a fun experience as he took me shopping early/late for the first bottle of the new vintage. The memory of wine is very powerful and the influence of experience on future buying habits was recognised in a panel discussion at the Vineyard

The release of Beaujolais Nouveau is something I plan for and this year I not only purchased my traditional bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau but also an English equivalent. This is where the words of the poet came to mind. The English wine I purchased was an excellent taste experience, fresh and ultimately drinkable. I found myself quickly refilling wine glasses. The Beaujolais Nouveau although enjoyed was not quite as well received. This makes me refer to the words of Robert Frost and the idea of promises. The English wine fulfilled its promise in every way. Every bottle of wine is in fact a promise to the consumer. The vineyard workers and the winemakers have promised the consumer that they have done their best to produce a quality product, but the consumer has to build

When I was waiting for my wines to arrive, via courier, it highlighted the challenges vineyards face when offering internet sales when there is a deadline to meet because late delivery would mean that Beaujolais Nouveau day lost its fun. Delivery of English and Welsh sparkling wine can also be time sensitive and it could undo a lot of hard work if a wine is not delivered when promised. So hopefully all English and Welsh wine consumers who receive their wines as promised will appreciate the hard work of all those people at the vineyard who have gone the extra mile to put sparkle into the occasion.

The lines by Robert Frost finish with the idea of going to sleep and as the vines lay dormant for the next few months it seems an appropriate place for this month’s thoughts to end.

Significant London retail listing

Leonardslee Family Vineyards is pleased to announce that it has secured a significant listing with Nicolas UK, with all three wines available in five of its prime retail location London stores.

This is not only a significant listing for Leonardslee but for the English Sparkling wine sector as a whole, to achieve a multi SKU listing with a specialist French retailer. Nicolas UK is well- known for its strong domestic range of wines, with a smaller portfolio from the rest of the world.

Nicolas UK will be stocking all three Leonardslee wines which are all made by traditional method:

◆ Leonardslee Blanc de Blancs 2020 (RSP:£60)

◆ Leonardslee Brut Reserve 2021 (RSP: £45)

◆ Leonardslee Brut Rosé 2021 (RSP: £45).

The wines were in store in time for the crucial last two weeks of Christmas trading. The Canary Wharf shop with its prime location and customer base also held an afternoon of in store tastings on 12 December, hosted by Leonardslee Family Vineyards and supported by an impressive 55” video wall which highlighted the Leonardslee estate.

The new listings will be supported into the new year with more winemaker tastings scheduled, and a London pop-up planned in conjunction with chef Jean Delport from Interlude, Leonardslee’s own Michelin Star and Michelin Green Star restaurant.

Penny Streeter OBE, owner of Leonardslee Family Vineyards commented: “We are so happy and proud of this listing, such a huge step for us and English Sparkling wine to receive recognition from Nicolas for the quality of our wines. We have achieved so much in such a short time since our launch and we are delighted to be able to

support and work with Nicolas going forward.”

Benoit Thouvenin, Managing Director for Nicolas UK, concluded: “Nicolas UK is proud to be able to offer London’s fine wine lovers one of the finest achievements when we talk about sparkling wine produced in the UK. The very high quality deserves its place on our shelves and we are delighted to be the first to bring Leonardslee into the heart of London.”

Chalon to Arles and back on a Rhône wine cruise

Dear editor,

“Would I like to take a week’s river cruise and do some wine education and tastings?” It sounded like the ideal gig for me to start my retirement plan. In fact it turned out that I was to be ‘the on-board wine guy’ for two weeks – down to Arles, the Roman jewel of Provence – and back. Eight tastings, three visits and lots of questions with 100+ voyagers. Mainly from all over the English speaking world, including a large party from Wales, we set off from Chalon-sur-Saône (just south of Beaune) via stops in various places – Lyon, Tain, Avignon, Chateauneufdu-Pape and Arles, in all around 1,000 km there and back – and on each day there was some wine-related event, either a tutored tasting or a cellar visit.

The crowd were good natured and seemed to like the wines (which I had chosen) especially the wine and cheese and wine and chocolate tastings. I also had to manage a five wine ‘wine and food matching’ dinner which, given that there were six courses, with three different options for each course, plus some daily specials, and given that as a partial vegetarian I don’t really believe in wine matching, was a bit of a bun-fight. I told the tour manager that they need to re-think that one! I’m not sure I turned any of them into MWs, but they certainly knew more about wine than they did before! All-in-all a very enjoyable two weeks and I look forward to doing it (or a different cruise) again.

Stephen Skelton MW

An innovative project which uses birdsong as a key to unlocking the secrets of wildlife has been launched in a collaboration between the UK Agri-Tech Centre and Chirrup.ai.

Chirrup.ai launched the groundbreaking technology to make nature monitoring simpler and cheaper, making it an affordable solution for measuring and managing biodiversity.

The project, ‘ChirrupNano’, with funding from Innovate UK, uses birdsong to monitor wildlife previously unseen in nature reserves and back garden bird counts.

The next-generation bio-recorder is slimline, self-locating, remotely deployed and designed and built right here in the UK.

It’s delivered straight to the farm and can be deployed in sun and shade, in remote fields and in woodland – wherever it’s needed.

Chirrup’s AI already recognises over 100 species from Great Britain and Ireland.

Innovative birdsong project unlocks secret to managing biodiversity

It is already getting major retraining to recognise all the important species that the UK’s pioneering non-governmental organisations have drawn to our attention, thanks to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), The Wildlife Trusts and the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).

The redesigned website app lets farms compare their species lists to others, to standard benchmarks and even their own past performance.

This empowers them to make more informed decisions about sustainable practices, leading to a richer, healthier ecosystem - such as increased plant diversity, better soil and fewer pests.

Birds are ecological barometers; they’re everywhere, super responsive to change and their presence tells a story about the thriving

life in the places they occupy – from insects and plants to clean water and the general quality of the ecosystem.

With farmland covering a huge 71% of the UK, it is the ideal testing ground for the nextgeneration Chirrup.ai and farmers are being asked to respond to changing government and food company policies on pro-wildlife production.

Hayley Gerry, Project Manager at the UK AgriTech Centre, said: “The expanse of knowledge we can gain about biodiversity in an area using the bioacoustics of bird song is extremely impressive.

“To enable sustainable farming, we need to encourage multi-species habitats to enrich the areas, which in turn makes the farming of livestock and arable products sustainable.

“In order to do this we need to be able to measure the baseline of the current situation, and that is where this project comes in.”

The biggest ever Welsh Wine Awards

The 2024 Welsh Wine Awards took place at the iconic Llanerch Vineyard Hotel, Hensol on 15 November. The awards are sponsored by Vigo, a part of the Rawlings Group, and organised by the Welsh Vineyards Association (WVA). There were 73 wines from across Wales, from 17 different vineyards, about 50% up from last year’s entry, which was itself a record.

The wines were sampled by a panel of five expert judges, including Masters of Wine from Wales and France. The tasting was divided into five different flights consisting of white and rosé sparkling, followed by rosé, white and red still wines. In spite of the challenging conditions of 2023, from which harvest many of the wines were produced, the judges were impressed by the overall quality, awarding a total of 39 bronze and 12 silver medals.

The winning wines were as follows:

◆ Best sparkling white (sponsored by Levercliff Associates Ltd):

Velfrey Vineyard’s Velfrey NV

◆ Best sparkling rosé (sponsored by Halfpenny Green Wine Estate):

Vale Vineyard’s 2022 Sparkling Rosé

◆ Best still rosé (sponsored by Food & Drink Wales):

Vale Vineyard’s 2023 Rosé

◆ Best still white (sponsored by Three Choirs Vineyards Ltd):

Montgomery Vineyard’s Solaris 2023

Robb and Nicola Merchant of White Castle Vineyard were presented with their trophy for Best Overall Welsh Wine 2024 by Paul Greengrass of principal sponsors Vigo, a part of the Rawlings Group, with Andy Mounsey, Chair of the Welsh Vineyards Association

◆ Best still red (sponsored by Food & Drink Wales):

White Castle Vineyard’s Regent 2022. Regent 2022 from White Castle Vineyard, was chosen as the best wine with PDO/PGI (an internationally recognised standard certifying its provenance and quality) and winner of the Martin Vickers Memorial Trophy. This award was sponsored by inprint.org.uk. The same wine was also chosen as the Best Overall Wine (sponsored

Brand-new podcast

TellTale Industries and TWS Creative have released the first episode of brand-new podcast, Intoxicating History, in partnership with Acast and sponsored by Taylor's Port.

Tom Parker Bowles (critic, writer, son of the Queen) & Henry Jeffreys (award-winning author) will explore the sometimes amusing, often dramatic but always intoxicating stories behind the drinks that we know and love today.

Hear about the rise and fall of empires, the birth of the industrial revolution, and history’s great men and women who were all shaped by an unlikely force: alcoholic drinks.

From ancient wines to Prohibition, royal tipples to revolutionary cocktails, Tom and Henry blend wit, expertise, and fascinating storytelling to bring the past to life, one sip at a time. As Henry reveals Charles Dickens's beloved punch recipes and Tom divulges the contents of the royal family's legendary drinks trolley, listeners will discover how alcohol has shaped civilizations, sparked wars, and sealed peace treaties.

Whether you're a history buff, a drinks enthusiast, or simply curious, Intoxicating History promises an entertaining and enlightening journey

by John Buchan Agronomy Ltd) and winner of the Thomas Davies Memorial Trophy. During the presentation ceremony, there was a video presentation by Deputy First Minister Huw Iranca-Davies.

WVA Chair Andy Mounsey concluded by thanking everyone involved who had come together to make the event such a success including Llanerch for hosting, the participating vineyards, the judges, and the sponsors.

through the ages, raising a glass to the spirited intersection of history and alcohol.

Each episode uncorks fascinating tales of what filled our glasses and how it's shaped the world we know today...

Exploring new technology

A

group of our students travelled to Bordeaux to immerse themselves in the wine industry and explore winemaking processes and technologies at the annual Vinitech-Sifel Expo.

Jenny Tame, a second-year BA (Hons) International Wine Business student, shares her experience.

Monday

We were invited to the Bordeaux equivalent of Plumpton College, “Bordeaux SciencesAgro”, where we met the Bachelors and Masters students. What an opportunity to share our experiences of wine education around the world and meet like-minded students who share a passion for the industry.

Tuesday

We attended Vinitech-Sifel, the purpose of our trip, where we looked around the expo, discovered new technology and saw the latest developments in wine production. It also gave us the chance to look at potential research projects that we may undertake in our third year.

Wednesday

Our group visited Chateau LynchBages in the morning and then Chateau Pedesclaux. Both Chateaux merged old and new technologies and traditions. We were particularly taken by the use of gravity for cap management, replacing harsher pump overs during vinification.

Thursday

We moved to the Right Bank, touring Plumpton College Alumna Charlotte Krajewski’s Chateau Seraphine, a stunning property that perfectly showcased her wines, including a beautiful rosé. The afternoon was spent wandering the streets of St Emilion and then visiting biodynamic producer Meylet. They generously shared their practices, their wines, and their philosophy.

Friday

We spent time in glorious sunshine, and the Cité du Vin. The museum – and the food hall next door let us explore our senses, some culture, history and of course our last few wines in one of the most significant wine regions in the world. A perfect end to our Bordeaux adventure.

Norfolk ’s burgeoning wine scene takes centre stage

Norfolk’s burgeoning wine scene recently took centre stage in London with a showcase designed to highlight the county’s dynamic wine offerings. Organised by Chalk Communications and hosted at the Vining Street Wine Club in Brixton, the event brought together well-established and emerging Norfolk wineries, providing them a platform beyond the usual focus on English wine regions like Sussex and Kent.

The tasting emphasised Norfolk’s still wines – a growing category in English winemaking.

John Hemmant of Chet Valley Vineyard aptly described Norfolk as the “northern frontier” of English winemaking, with its unique climates and soils fostering exciting developments. Among the featured wineries, Burn Valley Vineyard stood out with its 12 acre site in North Creake, planted in 2016 with a diverse range of grapes, including Solaris, Bacchus, Schonburger, and Pinot Noir. Head winemaker Matthew Abbey presented their upcoming 2024 orange wine, a unique blend of Schonburger and Pinot Gris that generated considerable excitement.

Chet Valley Vineyard, led by John and Bridget Hemmant, showcased their commitment to sustainability, blending permaculture with technical expertise to produce wines deeply connected to their environment. Equally impressive was Hawkers Hill Vineyard,

established in 2016 near Burnham Market by Anthea and Mark Thompson. With 7,000 vines of Bacchus, Solaris, Early Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay, their focus on still wines highlights Norfolk’s growing capabilities.

Walsingham Estate Vineyard, a family-run operation established in 2019, brought attention to its 15,000 vines of Bacchus, Solaris, and Early Pinot Noir. Despite its recent start, the estate is already demonstrating the potential of Norfolk’s terroir with its early vintages. Meanwhile, Winbirri Vineyard, founded in 2007 by Stephen Dyer and now led by his son Lee, remains Norfolk’s flagship winery. Known internationally for its awardwinning Bacchus, which was named “Best Single Varietal White Wine in the World” at the 2017 Decanter Awards, Winbirri continues to set the benchmark for quality in the region. The event also highlighted the efforts of Chalk Communications in promoting England’s emerging wine regions. Co-founded by Katie Lawton and Ashley Saunders, Chalk specialises in tailored marketing strategies that help wineries like those in Norfolk grow their brands and reach new audiences.

Norfolk’s winemakers are proving that the county’s unique conditions can produce wines that rival more established regions. From innovative blends to outstanding still wines, Norfolk’s “northern frontier” is undoubtedly a region to watch.

WineGB Wessex Awards 2024

I had the pleasure of attending the 40th annual WineGB Wessex Wine Awards Celebration Lunch at The PIG hotel in Brockenhurst. This milestone event celebrated four decades of winemaking excellence, bringing together producers, judges, and wine enthusiasts to honour the incredible quality and diversity of wines from Dorset, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, and Wiltshire.

WineGB Wessex is the third-largest of WineGB’s regional bodies, representing over 70 members, from small vineyards producing a few hundred bottles to estates crafting half a million. This year, more than 50 wineries entered their wines, highlighting the region’s growing reputation for excellence.

The big winner this year was Langham Wine Estate, whose 2019 Pinot Noir scooped both the prestigious “The PIG” Wessex Wine of the Year Trophy and the Best Sparkling Brut Trophy. Other winners included:

◆ Best Sparkling Rosé Trophy: Hattingley Valley, Kings Rosé 2015

◆ Best Still Wine Trophy:

Domaine Hugo, Two Times and a Half 2021

◆ John Youles Trophy (Still): Domaine Hugo, Two Times and a Half 2021

◆ Roger Marchbank Trophy (Sparkling): Domaine Hugo, Hugo 2020

Alice Griffiths

The judging panel included Luke Harbor, Head of Wine for The PIG Hotels and chair of the judges; Phoebe French of WineGB; and Rebecca Pitcairn of English Wine Diaries. Luke Harbor was particularly impressed by the “breadth, consistency, and overall quality” of the sparkling wines, though he acknowledged the challenges faced by still wine producers during a tricky vintage.

Speaking at the event, Guillaume Lagger, Chair of WineGB Wessex, said: “The awards celebrate the incredible quality of Wessex wines, and it’s an exciting moment for the region as we see our wines being recognised.”

This was the third year of collaboration between WineGB Wessex and The PIG Hotels, whose support has helped to elevate the profile of Wessex wines. The perfect setting to toast the winners and indulge in a delectable feast of local produce.

From sparkling wines that rival the world’s best to innovative and characterful still wines, Wessex is firmly establishing itself as a leader in English wine. Such a delight to be surrounded by so much passion and talent that is driving the industry forward.

For more details: DESKTOP www.winegbwessex.co.uk

Alice Griffiths is a wine communicator boosting the profile of English and Welsh Wine on social media, under the popular handle of Posing With Alcohol. Alice has worked within the agriculture industry for the past 20 years, spending time as a lecturer and a smallholder before discovering her passion for viticulture, winemaking and wine tasting.

Get in touch to have your events featured: ENVELOPE Posingwithalcohol@gmail.com INSTAGRAM Alice can be found on social media under @posingwithalcohol on Instagram.

Jacob Leadley: ENVELOPE jacob@blackchalkwine.co.uk

New facility to drive wine industry performance and excellence

On 29 August Campden BRI opened the doors to a new, world-class wine services laboratory and testing centre in Guildford. A facility that sets the benchmark for the delivery of grape and wine-related analytical services, advice and targeted training in the UK.

The state-of-the-art facility, based at the Surrey Research Park, is equipped with cutting-edge technology and staffed by a team of seasoned experts with comprehensive knowledge of the needs of national and international wine sectors. This investment demonstrates Campden BRI’s dedication to driving progress and innovation across all sectors of the wine industry in the UK.

The day also marked Campden BRI’s new partnership with the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), the world’s leading wine research institute, a partnership that enables Campden BRI Wine Services to access the latest international developments and

in par tnership

innovations in grape and wine research. Grape growers, winemakers, wine retailers, wine importers and technical specialists from across the UK were welcomed into the facility by the Wine Services team. Robert Pride, Senior Analytical Chemist at Campden BRI Wine Services, guided visitors through the new laboratory, showcasing the impressive investment in equipment and highlighting the excellent qualifications and skills of the

analytical staff. A notable addition is the Gallery Plus Discrete Analyser, allowing rapid, highly accurate measurements of glucose, fructose, sucrose, malic acid, acetic acid, yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN), and free and total sulphur dioxide.

Following the laboratory tour, guests made their way to the Surrey Research Park Hub, where Industry Development and Technical Manager Dr Gregory Dunn conducted a

Photos: Ian Pack – www.winephotos.uk

hands-on, competitive exercise focused on identifying and understanding wine taints. Among other things, Campden BRI Wine Services offers services related to detecting, measuring understanding and managing wine faults. In addition to this, they offer bespoke training for all sectors of the industry.

Peter Headridge, CEO of Campden BRI, and Dr Eric Wilkes from AWRI then delivered a series of interactive presentations showcasing Campden BRI’s and AWRI’s extensive capabilities. These highlighted how the Wine Services team is uniquely positioned to foster improvement and growth within all sectors of the wine industry in the UK through a distinctive range of analytical services, support, and expert advice.

“Our partnership with AWRI and investments in this facility will be transformative for the UK industry and will future proof our technical services and capabilities, demonstrating a strong vote of confidence in the domestic wine sector. We are committed to providing the industry with the advanced tools and expertise it needs to thrive in both local and international markets.”

Peter added: “The domestic UK wine industry has experienced steady growth and now requires top-quality technical support and consultancy to remain competitive globally. According to data from WineGB, the 2023 grape harvest exceeded the 2018 record by 68%, with enough grapes to produce 22 million bottles of wine.” Furthermore, in 2022 UK wine imports totalled £4.67 billion, making it the second largest importer of Wine in the world. Around 1.7 billion bottles of wine are consumed in the UK annually.

Finally, Peter outlined the broader capabilities of Campden BRI, based in Chipping Campden, which also can be harnessed to drive the wine industry forward. These include solutions based on new approaches in material science, analytical chemistry, sensory science, consumer preference and packaging backed by a thorough knowledge of regulatory and labelling requirements. “Packaging, labelling, international regulations, exports, sensory panelling as an analytical tool, consumer preference and foreign body analysis are all areas with which we have published expertise available. We provide the technical evidence for companies to make informed decisions. It’s not just about providing analytical results but also adding the value of interpretation and consultancy to our clients.”

With over 2,500 member companies in 80 countries, Campden BRI works closely with

industry to ensure the industrial relevance of everything they do. This includes a wide range of analysis and testing services and operational support underpinned by a vigorous programme of research and innovation and promoted through extensive knowledge management activities. Many of the technical services are accredited in accordance with the recognised International Standard ISO17025:2017 by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). The accreditation demonstrates technical competence for a defined scope of methods, specific to each site, as detailed in the schedules of accreditation bearing the testing laboratory number. Campden BRI (Chipping Campden) Limited is a UKAS accredited testing laboratory No. 1079.

Sam Linter, Director of Wine at Plumpton College and Chair of WineGB, was among the guests on the day and commented: “It is fantastic to have a facility that provides the ability for winery owners and winemakers to

bring bottles with them and sit and talk about what problems they have and to then discuss and understand the results of analyses; what they may need to change or what they have done well and the subsequent results. This is not just about chemical analysis but sensory as well which is extremely valuable for further understanding and developing winemaking across the industry.”

A small investment in wine analysis can save a fortune in foregone revenue and ensure product quality. Campden BRI Wine Services offers a broad range of individual analyses and analysis packages, as well as several more bespoke analyses and bespoke training and advice. Many customers set up regular routine due diligence testing for analyses such as quality and shelf-life tests, and Wine Services will happily to advise and provide quotes for these services (Wine analysis at Campden BRI). If the analysis that you require is not listed on their website, please contact then directly for advice, availability and price.

Passion for forestry

Forestry may be a business for Jon Davies and Dave Holmes, but it is also their passion.

It’s a passion that can benefit not just the environment but the bottom line of businesses that have a significant area of woodland as part of their holding.

For vineyards that welcome visitors as part of a multi-faceted business plan, their well-respected business, South East Forestry, can open up woodland walks to provide an additional attraction and encourage more potential buyers to spend time on site.

“Larger vineyards are increasingly incorporating a café or restaurant and wine sales into their offering, and for those that are set in an attractive wooded landscape, it makes sense to make the most of that landscape,” explained Jon.

South East Forestry manages woodland to benefit the environment, allow new plants and insects to thrive and encourage healthy trees to achieve their full potential.

The team recently carried out a project for Mike Bax, long-standing director and now consultant with Challock, Kent-based BTF

Partnership, someone Jon described as being “totally on the same page” with regard to the environmental benefits of well-managed woodland.

Alongside his professional work with BTF Partnership, Mike and wife Jan own 100 acres of species-rich grassland and 160 acres of woodland, all in higher-tier countryside stewardship schemes, at Moat Farm, Shadoxhurst.

As a self-confessed ‘tree geek’, nature enthusiast and bird lover, Mike turned to South East Forestry when he decided it was time

Chequer under the canopy

Thinned woodland after harvesting

Before thinning

to tackle an area of his own woodland that needed more than just a coppicing operation.

“We had five acres that desperately needed thinning as the high forest was shading the woodland floor completely,” he recalled. ‘There was no under storey or ground cover and my wife Jan and I knew that that wasn’t good for the trees or for the plant, insect or bird life.”

They soon discovered that Jon was right on their wavelength. “Some people think that by shutting the gates on an area of woodland and leaving it to do its thing, they are somehow helping the environment, but they really aren’t,” he commented. “Woodland has been managed throughout the centuries, and a tangle of dead and dying trees shutting out the daylight and preventing anything else from growing isn’t the eco-friendly move they think it is.”

Mike was particularly keen to improve the woodland to support rare bird life including nightingales and nightjars, both of which breed in the area but which need a healthy under storey with good ground cover. “They need a coppice rotation, which gives them the ideal breeding conditions from year three or four through to about year ten,” he pointed out.

Mike was also keen to protect and enhance the setting of 31 wild service – or chequer – trees that he found languishing in the overstood and tangled woodland. The trees are relatively rare countrywide and are an important relic of the old Wealden forest landscape.

South East Forestry’s approach to forestry is to work with the landowner to create a healthy, revitalised woodland, deliver the best value to the client and divert as much timber as possible to high-end, long-term uses.

“Using as much timber as we can for construction and furniture making not only increases the value to the landowner but keeps the carbon locked up,” he explained. “Suitable lower grade timber can be used for fencing,

with firewood very much the last option.”

At Moat Farm, “every last ounce” of the harvested wood was put to good use, with the low grade thinnings stacked to provide a future source of biofuel for four houses and other building on the estate. Mature oak was taken back to South East Forestry’s own sawmill at Hawkhurst with a view to finding a long-term use for the timber, and the coppiced timber will have a new life as fencing.

Jon’s first step when asked to work, coppice or improve woodland is to walk the area with the landowner and create a management plan. “Jon came to see me in the spring and had a thorough look around,” Mike recalled. “He talked sensibly about what should be done and how he could sensitively improve these semi-natural ancient woodlands.

“We discussed the need to create better habitats for the nightingales, let daylight onto the forest floor to allow more plants and insects to thrive, clear space for the wild service trees and generally create a more open, living, woodland environment.”

The wild service trees were marked up and avoided by the highly skilled harvesting and forwarding machine operators, while Jon also handled all the paperwork, liaising with the Forestry Commission and obtaining the necessary licences.

“One of the wild service trees featured in The Queen’s Green Canopy, a book which depicted 70 ancient woodlands that was commissioned by Prince Charles to mark Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, so you can understand how important it was to choose the right person to do this work,” commented Mike.

“In the event Jon and his team did everything they said they would and the work exceeded my expectations by a considerable way. They did a great job and the wood looks ten times better today than it did before.”

S UTH EAST

WOODLAND MANAGEMENT

WANTED LARGE QUANTITIES OF ENGLISH OAK, ASH & SWEET CHESTNUT

Unmanaged woodland? Overstood coppice falling over? Timber growth stopped due to too much competition?

South East Forestry can provide financial returns from unmanaged and neglected woodland.

We are looking to purchase large volumes of woodland grown standing timber.

All hardwood and softwood species sought South East Forestry: We buy –We fell –We sell timber

WINE REVIEWS

A pink Christmas

Rosés must tick three boxes to succeed: colour, aroma and palate.

I think the forty-quid mark is make or break for elite sparkling wines during the festive season, and I have found three spectacular candidates for your perusal and enjoyment this year.

It’s worth spending five minutes searching the internet for prices of familiar rosé Champagnes to see that most famous brands now reside around the £60-mark. This makes £40 a failsafe target, giving our best wines a rock-solid chance to nudge French wines aside and step up to the plate (literally) this Christmas.

For me, sparkling rosé is the go-to Christmas and New Year celebrations category. Aside from the visual appeal, this style of wine is the most adept at pairing with virtually every single style of cuisine imaginable, from complex canapés all the way up to turkey and all the trimmings. It is the one wine that cannot put a foot wrong. I have never met someone who does not enjoy a glass of sparkling rosé thrust into their hand the moment they cross your threshold. But thinking even more strategically, I would venture that smoked salmon appears in virtually every single gastronomically astute household’s festive menu at some stage or other, and this style of fizz is the world champion with this indulgent ingredient.

In the UK, we have become laser-focused on this style of wine over the last decade. I have written extensively about rosés on this page and how they should and could be improved so that our home-grown creations can compete on a world stage.

Hammering home of the importance of sparkling rosé, coupled with winemakers’ love for these wines and rapidly growing consumer demand, has fast-tracked the rise in quality of English and Welsh sparkling rosé wines. Is this the most improved category of wine in our land?

As we all know, you cannot make genuinely delicious rosé without great red wine, and the advent of a couple of warm vintages plus decent and growing stocks of reserves have meant we can pull together pink-hued,

perfumed and harmonious wines with more frequency and consistency than ever before.

I have chosen three wines for this festive spread that cover the three main rosé sub-categories, bringing me to an important point. There is no one recipe for this style of sparkling wine. Like every wine in a portfolio, sparkling rosé should be made in a style that your vineyards and grapes dictate, and Tinkerbell-light rosés are as valid as meatier, more full-bodied wines. They all have their place in our wine diet, and one ought to introduce variety to your life if you are stuck

in a singular rosé groove.

One final and vitally important point, which was taught to me nearly 40 years ago, is that if you were blindfolded and handed two glasses of sparkling wine to taste, one white and one pink, it should be patently obvious from the perfume, let alone the flavour which is the rosé. There is no point in drinking a sparkling rosé wine that looks pink yet smells and tastes like a white! Rosés must tick three boxes to succeed: colour, aroma and palate. If the flavour enchants your senses, too, that is all one could ask for.

NV The Grange, Pink, Hampshire

£39.00

www.thegrangewine.co.uk

£40.25 reduced to £35.75 each by the case www.hhandc.co.uk

Made from 57% Pinot Meunier, 38% Pinot Noir and 5% reserve wines, this seamless and effortlessly balanced wine hits the spot with glorious accuracy.

The Grange Pink is my ‘lightweight’ recommendation, with its pale coral hue, spine-tinglingly pure cherry stone perfume and sleek, gossamer-smooth palate. While the flavours skate across the palate with silent delicacy and momentum, the adroit finish carves a beautiful arc of tension on your taste buds thanks to the pristine acidity found here.

Demure and wistful, this hauntingly pretty wine ought to find its place in everyone’s ice bucket for elite aperitif duties. Hats off to The Grange; this estate’s patience has paid off.

This portfolio is now complete, with ‘Pink’ rightly blazing a trail, which must surely be rewarded with bumper sales. Of course, the keen pricing policy will help, so please spread the word as I venture this wine will become a mainstay at parties and celebrations up and down the land this December.

2018 Roebuck Estate, Rosé de Noirs

£42.00

www.roebuckestates.co.uk

www.averys.com

£44.00

www.thesecretcellar.co.uk

£44.50

www.henningswine.co.uk

£45.00

www.caviste.co.uk

My ‘textural’ rosé pick comes from the ever-reliable Roebuck Estate, with its extraordinarily indulgent 2018 vintage red-grape-symphony!

The glorious weather conditions in 2018 helped to ripen the 78% Pinot Noir, 17% Pinot Meunier and 5% Pinot Précoce (red wine addition) to perfection, and with a mighty 53 months of slumber under its belt, this wine is ready to deliver its stunning message.

The creamy palate is nothing short of magical, and this pliable raft of flavour

allows the wilder raspberry and strawberry notes to perform. The finish is cool, crisp and teasing but not overly raw, and this helps to give 2018 Roebuck Rosé de Noirs a generous and welcoming air that allows you to drop your shoulders, immediately relax and enjoy the atmosphere around you.

In short, this is one of the most soothing and subtle rosé wines in the UK, and its crowd-pleasing attributes are undeniable. Head to this wine for experts and amateurs alike because they are all guaranteed to fall under its spell.

2019 Artelium, Makers Rosé

£42.00 www.artelium.com

£40.00

www.palatebottleshop.com

£32.40

www.barriquefinewines.com

My ‘structured’ rosé of the year is this utterly amazing and incredibly commanding wine.

Made from 66% Pinot Noir, 29% Chardonnay and 5% Meunier, there was no oak used here to soften any edges, and the red wine addition was cold-soaked for a couple of days to bring more gravitas and impact to the final wine. And what a beauty this is!

It is like a sparkling red in terms of its intensity and luxuriousness, and unlike the other two wines, the bubbles are not urgent and prickly but gently cascading and even-tempoed. Under the seductive dark red berry notes, you will find spicier hints, making this a foody creation that could not only tackle a turkey but step up to venison and even roast beef.

Don’t get me wrong – this is not a heavy wine. It has the same intrinsic weight as my other two stunners but has more intensity and boldness on the palate. I love that Artelium makes wines with strong characters and decisive flavours. This is one of the finest rosé wines I have tasted this year, and the value for money is exceptional.

Historic vintage

Charles Palmer and his family moved to Winchelsea in 1998, taking on the lease of the 750 acre estate from the National Trust. This was a mixed farming enterprise incorporating arable, beef and sheep.

The drive to Wickham Manor passes through a 13th Century archway ironically called New Gate that once formed part of the walls of Winchelsea. The site is steeped in history with the current grade II* listed building dating from 1580 although the farming history of the land can be traced back centuries before this.

References to this land have been found from 1200 and William Penn (founder of Pennsylvania) is among the previous owners. Standing in the courtyard surrounded by buildings of various ages that have had various purposes, it is clear that a site this unique may have been owned by various people, but its longevity underlines that ownership by any one person or family is transitory and actually those who have lived and worked here over the centuries have been the guardians of something truly special.

In 2006 Charles and Sally made the decision to add vines to the other enterprises on the farm. “Making a living as a farmer can be difficult, so its important to diversify”, said Charles. It was a decision that Charles and his wife Sally spent time researching, “we had a friend who

had studied at Plumpton gaining a degree in Oenology and viticulture, we also went to visit organic producers in the Champagne region,” said Charles.

The history of the site indicated that the area had once been a hop garden. “The sandy loam, free draining soil rests on a deeper moisture retaining clay and we have close proximity to the sea so to plant vines was not re-inventing the wheel,” said Charles pragmatically.

The initial planting was two hectares of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines. “We decided that we didn’t want to include Pinot Meunier because we wanted to keep the planting simple, also Pinot Meunier would have been a really small percentage of the initial planting,” explained Charles. Instead the focus has been on selecting a variety of different clones in order to produce both still and sparkling wines. “I really like red wine so that was always in my mind,” said Charles.

There are Germanic clones of Pinot Noir “these add a slightly spicy and fruit forward flavour profile to the wine and the Burgundy clones such as 777 are perfect for our still red wines,” Charles said with

Sally, Charles, Chantal, Andy and Robert

enthusiasm. Interestingly these numerous clones are not necessarily kept separate at harvest. “The first harvest was 2009 and we won a medal for that initial wine. At that time the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were fermented together and although it is different now we have maintained the same principle. The grapes are picked according to the ripeness levels and then placed in tank and so in this respect some important decisions are made in the vineyard pre-ferment,” he added. There are striking parallels between the actual buildings on the site and the way the land is managed. Over the centuries Wickham Manor has been adapted to ensure it continues to be practical and Charles Palmer Vineyards’ attitude to viticulture has mirrored this. There has been a gradual expansion of the vineyard plantings and there are currently 16 Ha under vine. The latest planting on the site was in 2024 and this included a substantial number of vines of the Piwi variety Sauvignac. “The crossing of Sauvignon with Riesling offers a very balanced acidity for more palate variation,” said Charles as he explained why Sauvignac had been selected.

Over the centuries Wickham Manor has witnessed outbreaks of the plague, The English Civil War, The Bloodless Revolution, The Great Fire of London and two World Wars to name just a few major milestones in history. Future generations will include the Covid-19 Pandemic amongst these momentous events. The pandemic saw the family turn an unused lambing shed into an atmospheric tasting room with practical outside space that enabled the business to adapt to the challenge of social distancing rules. The manor itself was also altered to allow for one wing to become self-contained private suites available for rent as holiday accommodation.

The focus has been on selecting a variety of different clones in order to produce both still and sparkling wines

Photos: Martin Apps, Countrywide Photographic

The Covid-19 pandemic also led to significant shifts in the vineyard as well. “The 2020 harvest was traumatic due to a shortage of labour,” said Charles. The difficult weather in 2021 saw the vineyard turn to a Pellenc mechanical harvester hired and operated by Sam Barnes. “The machine harvest picked only the very ripe grapes and this would not have been achievable with hand picking,” said Charles. The results were so impressive the vineyard took delivery of their own Pellenc harvester in 2022.

All the fruit at Charles Palmer Vineyards is picked by machine, the machine is set up by Robert Palmer, who works alongside his father Charles in both the winery and the vineyard. Charles then travels on the machine and looks at sample quality until they decide that the machine is set perfectly. Charles estimates that the machine is capable of harvesting 20 tonnes a day however the wet season of 2024 had left a problem with downy mildew in the top of the canopy, and this meant that the machine would block. Despite this Charles believes that the grape harvester works in line with nature. “The mechanical harvester only picks clean ripe fruit. Naturally, ripe fruit falls from the vine and

“The machine harvest picked only the very ripe grapes and this would not have been achievable with hand picking”

cutting the bunches from the vine is actually human intervention in the natural process,” said Charles with a smile that indicated he knows this is a controversial opinion.

Father and Son work well together and throughout the conversation their different approaches dovetail to provide a comprehensive insight into the daily workings of the business. “We are family working for a common goal, so we are allowed to be a bit more outspoken, the generational difference is beneficial, and Robert has good ideas,” said Charles with a hint of paternal pride. “There is nothing like working with family,” said Robert with a mischievous smile that makes the whole family chuckle.

The mechanical harvester has fitted seamlessly into the operation of the vineyard. “The headlands are 8m to 10m as we always had machinery such as sprayers in mind and we already had quality posts

“The biggest problem we have is still the weather as realistically we are growing vines on the edge of what is possible”

in place. The vines were planted in 2.7m rows with a spacing of 2m but the most recent planting since the harvester has been purchased was planted at 2.5m rows at 1.5m spacing.” Charles previous experience of the land led him to believe that the vines might suffer due to over vigour and accordingly the vines were initially trained to the Scott Henry system but the system did not work so the vines now are Single Guyot, Cordon trained.

Talking about pests and diseases in the vineyard Charles said: “The biggest problem we have is still the weather as realistically we are growing vines on the edge of what is possible.” The vineyard was originally organic but the young vines were not progressing as well as they should “I took the pragmatic approach we still use a sympathetic land management policy but I won’t lose a crop because of disease,” said Charles.

A Grade II* listing means that any work undertaken in the property and its curtilage has to be considered and undertaken with extra care. There are of course certain restrictions “there are some fireplaces that we are not allowed to use,” said Sally with a whimsical smile. These restrictions do not however mean that these buildings are museums, their continued use secures the future as much as it preserves the past. In 2016 Charles took the decision to move winemaking onsite and the 2017 vintage was the first vintage to be produced in the onsite winery. “The original winery was very basic and covered about 2,000 sq ft,” said Charles. “It was not an inviting space to work in and felt quite isolating as it was a long way from the centre of the site,” added Robert. As of 2024 this is no longer the case as two cattle yards have been converted into a 10,000 sq ft custom designed winery. Situated just a stones throw from both the tasting room and the vines the new winery is so sympathetically blended to its surroundings that it requires a second look to realise that it is newly converted.

“This was a conversion rather than a new build so it was not straight forward. It was important that the construction company were able to do what we wanted but in a manner that was in keeping with the rest of the site, for example the black exterior was important as it reflects what is seen in the other buildings.

“We were aware that GJ Elgar had built a good reputation within the industry and Graham’s previous experience of building wineries meant he was able to provide valuable advice about installing drains and falls in the floor of the winery,” said Charles. “The drains that have been installed are stainless steel, food safe drains,” Graham Elgar pointed out.

“Although the conversion of existing buildings to a winery is not that common we do have a lot of experience of converting agricultural buildings to alternative uses,” added Graham.

The project was complicated by asbestos in the previous structure which was swiftly and expertly dealt with and the need for special drainage works to ensure the building was fully weatherproof. “One elevation was below ground level and had been leaking since the original building was constructed somewhere around the 1950’s. Using multiple techniques we were able to remedy the problem and the building is now water tight for the first time,” said Graham. The project also involved work to improve access. The access road is vital to help the new winery with the logistics of harvest and deliveries. “It was such a pleasure to work with the whole family at Charles Palmer Vineyards, they were all so helpful and understanding,” Graham said.

Graham and his team were able to promptly complete this new project which will enable Charles Palmer Vineyards to produce 100,000 bottles a year “this is the productive extent of the vineyard,” Charles said. The new winery houses a variety of tanks ranging from 1,000 litres to 5,000 litres “this is the maximum size tank we work with as big tanks make the wines taste the same and that is not what we want,” Charles added.

There is a new disgorging line on order from WR Services which will also give more freedom in the winery. “The new winery is a space which I enjoy working in and means I want to be pro-active; it is much easier to keep clean and therefore time in the winery is far better spent,” explained Robert. This makes the point that for a small vineyard and winery team such as the family business of Charles Palmer Vineyards efficiency is extremely valuable.

“It makes me happy when customers are pleased with their new winery,” said Graham. “But what really brings me satisfaction is hearing that the winery building at Charles Palmer Vineyards is really working for them, saving them time and creating a space they enjoy working in,” Graham concluded with warmth in his voice.

• Steel frame buildings

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www.gjelgarconstruction.co.uk

For more information contact us: t: 01233 623739 m: 07860 414227

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The wines produced at Charles Palmer vineyards are vintage specific and Robert pointed to the 2017 Rosé as being particularly interesting “it was inoculated with a tiny amount of yeast,” he explained. “We produce smaller batches of wines and when these wines run out customers have to wait for the next vintage, encouraging customers to look forward to what we release next,” said Charles.

One of the wines that customers will be waiting for is the popular Demi Sec. “This is a wine with a wide appeal and is very popular, it is a perfect toasting wine,” said Chantal who is married to Robert and runs the cellar door and tastings at the vineyard. Wickham Manor has also featured in the popular TV series The Crown and was also used as the setting for Mr Holmes featuring Ian McKellen and Laura Linney. “There were so many people on the production set,” said Chantal with a laugh.

It has often been suggested that restaurants do not want wines that vary from vintage to vintage but the vintage specific wines are popular with the vineyards’ on-trade clients. “Our wines are popular on pairing menus as the vintage variation allows chefs to be expressive and creative,” said Charles.

The vineyard is on the 31 mile 1066 Country Walk and there are many visitors that find the vineyard as part of this popular walking trail. “We are able to provide a picnic hamper for people to enjoy on a selfguided tour of the vineyard and this has been really well received,” said Chantal. The vineyard also offers bespoke packages including lunch for a maximum of 30 people. Vine and Country wine tours also cook long lazy lunches at the vineyard as part of their bespoke wine tours service.

The vineyard holds trade tastings for those that stock their wines. “Tastings give confidence to those stocking the wines,” said Chantal. There are about 14 tastings a week and tastings have provided good

experiences for Chantal. “I once held a tasting with six winemakers and sommeliers from Estonia. There are not many vineyards in Estonia but it was such a rewarding experience. I learnt so much from them and they were excellent company too.

Andy and Heidi Rixon live in a neighbouring property and help out at the vineyard and winery, Andy also hosts tastings. “On one tasting I met an intensive care nurse who had cared for me after a motorbike accident and that was an amazing experience,” he said.

Originally called Palmer Vineyards, Charles faced objections from not one but two French vineyards and so Charles Palmer Vineyards was the name selected. The label design and branding is inspired by the Palmer family coat of arms. “Family is paramount,” said Charles with gravity. The traditional medieval hound is pictured seated instead of the usual running pose in order to bring a sense of relaxed enjoyment.

The atmosphere at Charles Palmer Vineyards is one of inclusivity be it clients who arrive by helicopter or walkers who didn’t know the vineyard was there. Everyone is welcomed with a sense of family and enjoyment. “I love meeting the guests,” said Sally, and the sentiment is shared by everyone. The current guardians of this historic landscape are through their vineyard and winery sharing a piece of the historic foundations of Wickham Manor well beyond the borders of the county of Sussex, every sip being a special taste of history.

“Our wines are popular on pairing menus as the vintage variation allows chefs to be expressive and creative”

Unlocking wine descriptions

Biodynamic, organic, sustainable, renewable, regenerative, permaculture, agroforestry. What do they all mean?

In the fifty years that I have been involved with winegrowing and winemaking a lot of things have changed. Whilst some things have got simpler, a lot of labelling and a lot of wine descriptions have got more complicated and more obscure, especially around claims that ‘our wines are greener than yours’, or ‘our vineyard is better for the environment than the vineyard next door’. This month I wanted to try and unlock what some of these claims really mean.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), not an organisation that often features in a wine magazine, has recently decided that enough is enough and taken upon itself to question the use of the terms ‘regenerative’ and ‘sustainable’. It says that these terms are being over-used (aka ‘greenwashing’) and unless farmers and growers can show that they are following the five major practices that the ASA deems cover the terms, then ‘advertisers must take care to avoid

overclaiming when communicating their regenerative farming initiatives’. The five practices are:

◆ Limiting soil disturbance

◆ Maintaining year-round soil cover

◆ Promoting biodiversity and crop rotations

◆ Keeping living roots in the soil

◆ Integrating livestock and arable systems

The ASA goes on to warn against claims, such as ‘“regenerative”, “nature-friendly” or “sustainable” within a food production context and they can only be used when they are supported by a very high level of substantiation. Of course in vineyards, not all of these practices are possible or desirable. If weedkillers are off the menu, then undervine hoeing is the most practical weed control method, which rather puts paid to the first two practices, although maintaining a yearround sward of tasty weed and grasses which cover 75% of your vineyard area is better than nothing. Diversity is fine in the row, but not much good at weed suppression.

Biodynamic and organic

A lot of ordinary wine drinkers really struggle with labels that say ‘organic’ and ‘biodynamic’, many believing that it means ‘not sprayed’, ‘lower in sulphur dioxide’ and ‘better for the environment’ – all of which may, or may not, be true. The first two descriptions – biodynamic and organic – are the oldest and the best known and they do at least have a legally enforceable suite of rules and regulations to follow. It is just over 100 years since Rudolph Steiner gave the series of lectures for which he is now famous, setting out his vision of self-sustaining agriculture. Demeter, the worldwide organisation that overseas this method of agriculture, was founded in 1928. Organic agriculture first saw light of day in Britain during World War II as a way of producing food at a time when German U-boats were doing their best to starve Great Britain into submission, and supplies of fertilisers and other inputs were scarce. The Soil Association, the organisation that certifies and controls much of organic farming in GB (but not the only one), was founded in 1946.

As for the other terms – sustainable, renewable, regenerative, permaculture –what do they mean? For consumers, I suspect few have any real grasp of their meaning, apart from suggesting that the fields are full of contented cows/sheep/vines/turnips (delete as necessary), grazing or growing in sunlit pastures, tended by happy peasants. These terms may also imply that the food or drink being produced is more wholesome, more nutritious, and safer than products not described in these emotive terms.

Sustainable

If consumers struggle with some of these terms, what about the producers? In the context of vineyards, the terms biodynamic and organic are well understood. They mean registering your land with one of the relevant organisations, waiting the ‘in-conversion’ time for your land to clean itself up, and then farming it in the way proscribed by

Photos: © Martin Apps, Countrywide Photographic

the regulations. What could be easier? The upsides of this way of farming, apart from just feeling better about your farming practices, are that hopefully your products will be attractive to consumers looking for them and to re-sellers looking to stock and sell them. I also assume that there has to be a financial imperative to adopting this way of farming, given that yields are lower, often by a very significant amount, and especially in regions with ample rainfall i.e. Great Britain.

Most serious studies of biodynamic and organic farming show that the costs in running vineyards are pretty similar to those of conventional agriculture. Whilst you might not be using expensive pesticides, you will spend as much money using non-chemical sprays because the frequency is greater (typically twice as frequent), and their effectiveness is lower. You will also spend more on canopy management and weed control. On the yield side, all comparisons say that yields in organic and biodynamic vineyards are lower, with at least 20% lower being mentioned by some growers but figures of anywhere between 50% and 100% by others. In a wet season like 2024 (at least in northern Europe) some organic and biodynamic growers experienced total yield loss with disease-prone varieties.

Now here is a riddle. If one vineyard yields

six tonnes per hectare and another yields four tonnes per hectare and assuming that (apart from picking) their costs are identical, which is the most sustainable? That’s a tricky question to answer, especially if the first one is farmed conventionally and the second one biodynamically or organically. Logic would say that the higher yielding vineyard is producing more for less, thus making for more sustainability. Can the fact that organic and biodynamic growers are not using conventional agrochemicals (but are still probably using copper and sulphur, so not entirely chemical free) count for anything in the sustainability equation? As I said, a tricky question.

I have looked at many agricultural sustainability schemes over the years and its always surprised me that if you are growing normal crops, as the Soil Association outlines in its current ‘Standards for GB Farming and Growing’, growers should be: ‘selecting varieties with a natural resistance to pests and diseases’. Likewise, LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming), another GB-based sustainability scheme, also states that ‘choosing to grow pest resistant varieties… can enable you to grow a crop that will be more tolerant to pest damage’. However, take a look at the SWGB sustainability scheme ‘rule book’ and on the section on how to ‘Minimise and optimise

Wine Growing in Great Britain – Second edition is an A to Z of growing vines in the UK

For anyone contemplating planting and establishing a vineyard in the UK, and for those already growing vines on a small scale who perhaps wish to expand their vineyards and improve their winegrowing skills, it will be invaluable. It will also be of interest to students of viticulture. Wine Growing in Great Britain covers not only the viticultural tasks involved, but also, uniquely, the finances of UK wine growing: land costs, vineyard establishment and management costs and the income from both grape sales and wine sales.

pesticide inputs’ (Page 19) the use of vine varieties with natural resistance to diseases (i.e. hybrid and PIWI) are not mentioned. I wonder why? If you really wanted to do what it says on the tin, there is actually a natural way of doing this. SWGB of course are not alone in this. None of the grape/wine specific sustainability schemes I have studied (New Zealand, Oregon, Lodi Rules) goes anywhere near this tricky subject.

Real sustainability

Of course, if vine growers and wine producers really wanted to be as sustainable as possible, they could – for instance – only grow vines in climates where land and labour are cheap; where water was abundant and free and apply it in a way that is least wasteful; grow varieties such as modern hybrids (often called PIWI in Europe) that do not require any fungicides and insecticides and are much higher yielding than conventional viniferas giving as low a cost of production as possible; cultivate and manage vineyards with a minimum of inputs and make machine harvesting compulsory; in the winery produce your wine as environmentally as possible, and make CO2 capture mandatory.

<< Ensure that all packaging, including bottles, are as light as can be and use re-usable bottles where ever possible. Before you think this is an impossible crazy notion, look at what the Pugibet family are doing at Domaine La Colombette near Beziers. They have what they call their “20-20” vineyard: 20 hours of work a year in the vineyard and a yield of 20 tonnes per hectare. These incredibly low-input wines sell for €40 for six bottles or €6.67 per bottle. And they are profitable! Winegrowing is a business, and businesses stand or fall by their profits or losses. Pumping money made in one industry or profession into an enterprise that is not paying its way, however green its credentials, doesn’t make it sustainable in the long-term.

Animals in the vineyard

In recent years, bolstering your environmental credentials by putting photos of animals in your vineyard, usually sheep, on your website or social media pages seems to be an easy tick in the box of ‘things that we are doing that makes us greener.’ Having grazed my own sheep (I had a breeding flock of 150 Kent ewes when I farmed) in my vineyard in the 1980s, I can speak from experience.

Sheep love to escape to greener pastures, so good fencing is an absolute necessity. Also, despite what many people seem to think, you cannot just let the sheep into your fields and forget them. There are regulations about looking after sheep that must be followed. They need ‘lookering’ i.e. they must be looked at and counted at least once a day by someone ‘who has attended a lookering course’ to make sure they (the sheep) are all still standing, appear to be well, and not suffering in any way. They need access to fresh water, and if you are using them as winter mowers, they will need supplementary feeding if you want them to keep in good condition and produce good lambs or fatten them for sale (depending on whether they are ewes or lambs).

Sheep also get a wide range of maladies – foot-rot and fly-strike being the most common – and they also need dipping, injecting, drenching and generally tending to.

If you are near a footpath or public right of way, beware of the concerned passer-by who rings the RSPCA to say that there’s a sheep suffering from X, Y or Z in your fields as your usually-not-very-friendly inspector will be knocking on your door.

Additionally if you are using them as summer mowers and even as deleafers (which they will do if penned up tightly enough) you need two sets of electric fencing in order to move them from one part of the vineyard to the other. You also need to make sure that they are moved out of the way when spraying, even if it is just copper and sulphur. It is my experience that the benefits of having sheep in the vineyard are soon outweighed by the costs of looking after them and the relatively small amount of manure they leave behind is worth very little.

As for other types of animals, I cannot comment as I do not have the

experience, but sheep do enough damage to vines, posts and wires and anything bigger would do more. I guess that if you grew your vines on a high-wire system – GDC, Sylvoz, Tendone – then the sheep could pass underneath the wires, but you still need reliable fencing if you are to avoid the telephone call that starts ‘your b***** sheep are out again.’

Natural resistance in vines

Another often claimed benefit of ‘alternative’ systems of viticulture is that vines can be conditioned, trained even, to produce natural resistance to attack by fungal infections and insects. You will also often read that insect problems can be kept at bay by increasing the number of predators in the vineyard. This is done by making sure that you have lots of flowering plants in the vineyard to attract insects (usually described as ‘pollinators’ which of course with a self-pollinating plant like the grapevine is an irrelevance) which will attack the marauding insects that are making life difficult. Again, I have never seen any trials to show that this is possible or effective.

Renewable, regenerative, permaculture, agroforestry

As for these other terms, none of which appear to have any universally accepted meaning, it seems to me that you can make of them what you will. I once visited an early ‘regenerative’ vineyard in Great Britain and was surprised to see that it had been using glyphosate. I questioned the ‘no till’ owner who freely admitted that he had used it and that ‘black grass was a terrible problem without it’ (he was also a large-scale arable farmer). After that introduction to renewable agriculture I rather gave up trying to work out what it meant. The other day I spent an hour listening to some winegrowers who were incorporating trees into their vineyards. An ecologist from the very famous Bordeaux producer Châteaux Cheval Blanc told with great pride how they were growing trees alongside their vines ‘to improve the fertility of the soil’ (as it says on their website). So far, so good, but from my perspective all they were doing was planting windbreaks to divide up their vineyards, something we’ve been doing in Great Britain in hop gardens orchards and vineyards for many decades if not centuries!

And finally

I take my metaphorical hat (and gloves) off to those that adopt these alternative styles of managing their vineyards especially in a climate like ours. I wish them every success, but it cannot be easy. The challenges of a cool climate, often with frequent growing season rainfall, and especially with a weather-sensitive plant like the grapevine, are hard enough to face even with the armoury of sprays that we are legally allowed to employ, as many will know from the 2023 harvest. Sustainability means many things to many people, but one thing is certain: if the business leg of the threelegged sustainability stool gives way, the stool collapses.

Photo: © Martin Apps, Countrywide Photographic

Frosty reception

Frost hits when the new growth is at its most vulnerable.

One of the key impacts of climate change globally is the increase in extreme weather events. These are classed as weather which is unusually violent or abnormal in its duration or frequency. While a trend towards milder winters, and an overall warming in our geographical zone, is noted, the risk of spring frosts has not decreased or altered. This puts vines at particular risk due to earlier budbreak. The frost hits when the new growth is at its most vulnerable.

The devastation that frost can wreak on the newly awakened grapevines has led to renewed interest in finding innovative solutions for minimizing or preventing the damage, which may be used alongside more traditional methods like heaters and sprinklers. Measures taken to mitigate frost are traditionally divided into three categories; active, passive and chemical.

Types of frost

Radiation frost

When the nights are clear and calm, radiation frost is the enemy. As the sky is colder, the ground’s warmth is transferred upwards. Very cold air settles close to the ground, particularly in any shallows where it can pool. The warmer inversion layer above is utilised by a number of frost protection techniques to mitigate against damage.

Humidity can offer a degree of protection from radiation frost damage. High levels of humidity in the air causes white frost on the

vines. Temperatures remain close to zero and although the vine is covered in a white coat or even ice, this may actually protect the buds. Soil moisture can also help to absorb and store heat during the day, reducing the risks at night.

Advection frost

On cloudy, windy nights, advection frost can strike. A large mass of cold air, with a temperature of below 0°C is brought in by strong winds and surrounds the vines. The temperature may dip well below 0°C and stay there long into daylight hours.

Active frost protection measures rarely guard against this type of frost because of the strong winds and lack of a readily available source of warmer air.

Evaporation frost

This type of frost is caused by the loss of water through evaporation from the surface of a plant. It happens when relative humidity drops and dew evaporates. The transfer of energy used to evaporate the water requires heat – which ultimately cools the plant.

Evaporation frosts are classified as types, thanks to their visual appearance. There are white frosts which form on plants. It usually occurs when there is high humidity, low wind and clear, cold skies. A black frost sees no ice formation. The black name refers to the appearance of the plant material it destroys. This type of frost comes when the air is drier, and overcast skies are more likely to see the formation of black frost.

Frost forecasting and management

Early in 2024, Innovate UK announced that a project with “the potential to revolutionise frostrelated crop protection” had secured £300,000 funding from themselves and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs.

The Smarter Forecasting, Communication and Management of Frost Risk in Vineyards project seeks to create site specific, hyper localised frost risk forecasts which are tailored to different varieties of grapes. The project is being led by sensor manufacturer Terraprima and agri-tech facilitator Agri-Epi Centre, and supported by landbased education provider Plumpton College, vineyard and winery consultancy Vinescapes, vineyard monitoring solution Vinewatch, weather forecasting provider WeatherQuest, and WineGB.

The two year project started with sensors being installed at Dillions Vineyard in West Sussex, JoJo’s Vineyard in Oxfordshire, Tanhurst Estate Vineyard in Surrey, and Plumpton College, Quarry Wood and Ridgeview in East Sussex. The sensors were used to “assess frost risk at a micro level.” Weather forecasting models were combined with

mapped frost risk assessments and real-time measurements from the vineyards to give site-specific forecasts for both frost risk and type. Ultimately, it is hoped that these models will be able to provide frost alerts direct to mobile phones via an app.

Speaking about the project, Eliot Dixon, Head of Agri-Tech Engineering at Agri-Epi Centre was optimistic about the potential of the research: “Through this project, we will be providing a vital early warning of frost risk to vineyard managers, at a precision never achieved previously. This uses a fusion of weather modelling, IoT sensors and remote sensing to create a robust and commercially relevant solution that shows the very best of UK agri-tech.”

Vineyard Magazine looks forward to hearing more ongoing detail about the project in due course.

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Photo: Julia Claxton

Ridgeview Wine Estate

Frost mitigation measures

Air heaters

Frost candles, smudge pots or bougies have been used to protect vineyards for generations now. They are an effective method of helping to keep the temperature in the vineyard up during a frost event. The aim is to heat the air as uniformly as possible up to the inversion layer.

The number of candles that need to be placed will be dependent on the size and spacing of the vineyard in question.

The downside is that bougies are labour intensive to install during adverse weather and have a relatively significant environmental impact, since they can be burning fuel for several hours a night.

Companies like Stopgel have been working hard to create products that are more sustainable. Their anti frost candles burn natural biofuel and have a low smoke emission.

Mechanical heaters can also be used to raise the temperature of the vineyard and prevent frost from settling. The AgroFrost FrostBuster uses phase transition to control the formation of ice and make use of the energy that is liberated when vapour changes into ice. This can reduce the amount of energy required to protect a vineyard. This method is effective during both radiation and advection frosts.

FIND

www.npseymour.co.uk/products/frostbuster

Electrical heating cables

Using an energy efficient system of cables to protect vines against frost damage is considered to be a relatively economical and environmentally sustainable method of mitigating against frost damage. The cables are

fed along the trellis wire and the heat they need to emit is calculated against the weather conditions, including wind velocity, the capabilities of the hardware and, of course, safety considerations.

Electric cables do not make any direct emissions, unlike active protection methods like candles, for example. They also have a low energy consumption during their periods of use during frost events. As they are attached to a thermostat, they can operate automatically when needed, although an alarm system is useful to check the integrity of the cables in real time.

Danfoss offers a portfolio of products for businesses looking at installing an electric heating system. The installation consists of the heating element – either a heating cable with a constant wattage or a self-limiting heating cable, a controller with temperature and moisture sensors to automate the system and the various fixing elements needed to position the cables along the row. They can also give advice on understanding what specifications are required to accommodate the geographical location of the vineyard and the expected temperature fluctuations.

Hydrophobic particle film and acrylic polymers

Covering the plants helps to concentrate any daytime heat near the ground and is therefore the simplest method of frost protection –although the size of a vineyard may render it logistically undesirable. Research has taken place into the efficacy of using a film of hydrophobic particles or acrylic polymer as a cover. In this research, the hydrophobic particles were found to most effectively reduce frost damage, although covering is only seen to give good results where temperatures do not fall below - 3°C.

The AgroFrost FrostGuard offers a much better solution for vineyards. The stationary machine rotates 360° continuously and can be fitted with an Auto-Start System, which activates when temperatures drop below a set point. This allows vineyards to remotely and automatically protect known frost pockets when labour is in short supply without needing to drive around the vineyard all night, as is required with a FrostBuster

The Ventigel company in Bordeaux has introduced a larger capacity anti frost tool and is supplied by Vitifruit Equipment. See page 66 for more details

Selective extraction

Late winter pruning

Since dormant buds are protected by their shells, they are more resistant to frost damage than the delicate plant tissue of newly growing shoots. Delaying bud development is therefore another strategy available to the vineyard manager to give the buds the best chance of survival in the spring. There are two techniques for pruning the vines to help achieve this:

◆ Double pruning – cut back the shoots to 30-45cm above the spur in winter, which could be done mechanically, then wait until as late as possible to do final spur and bud selection.

◆ Sacrificial canes – Since the buds furthest from the crown will bud first, leaving longer spurs until after the risk of frost has passed can help to keep enough healthy buds to produce a reasonable crop. A word of warning though, in cool climate regions studies suggest that delaying budbreak can have a negative impact on wine quality because of the knock on delay to fruit development and maturation.

Oil application

Vegetable oils can be applied directly to the vines to delay budbreak. These products are referred to as “dormant oils” since that is when they must be applied to the plant. They are sprayed on when a severe weather event is expected, and give an additional degree of frost tolerance. Oils will need to be reapplied since the shoots will outgrow the initial spraying quite quickly. It is worth testing this method on a small area of the vineyard first to assess the impact of the oil not just in its effectiveness at delaying budbreak for those varieties but also any secondary effects on the resulting quality of the fruit.

Wind machines are usually considered to be an effective protection against radiation frost. They direct warmer air from above towards the vines as well as displacing colder air on the ground. Inverted sink fans can also be used in vineyards that have low-lying areas where the cold air pools. The fan is mounted horizontally and blows the air straight up to a height of about 90 metres. Since it removes the lowest air, it therefore removes the coldest air from the vineyard.

Sprinklers

Aspersion is considered to be one of the most effective methods of protecting vines from frost because it does not rely on the availability of warm air above the vineyard. The plants are continuously sprayed with water above the canopy. As it turns to ice, the freezing process releases latent heat that creates a warming microclimate and helps to protect the plants. A thin layer of ice continually forms and melts on the plants themselves and the energy released by it is sufficient to prevent the plant cells themselves from freezing.

Sprinklers are relatively energy efficient compared to heaters and can work effectively across a large area in both radiation and advection frosts. Plantex offers a range of solutions that work in different ways. For example, Pulsar™ Sprinklers deliver several pulses of water each minute, which gives continuous and uniform watering over a large area throughout the weather event. Alternatively, the Flipper sprinkler spreads water across a long and narrow strip. This means it targets the vine rows specifically, reducing the amount of water and energy needed to operate it effectively.

Harnessing nature’s latent heat

The science behind Frosco’s foam.

Frosco’s frost protection innovation – a low-cost, plant-based aqueous foam – has sparked a lot of curiosity, with many asking the same question: how does it work?

At its core, the system intensifies a natural process by maximising the release of latent heat as water transitions from liquid to solid. While modern sprinkler systems already use this principle for protection against frost, Frosco’s system harnesses it far more efficiently.

Unlike sprinkler systems which run all night, the foam is just applied once –minimising water usage and driving down costs.

The release of latent heat drives many processes observed in the natural world. During dew formation, water vapour condenses into liquid droplets, releasing latent heat that can create a thin layer of protective warmth on surfaces.

George

Klat ENVELOPE george@frosco.io phone-alt 07848 320344

Frosco’s foam mirrors this natural elegance. By drawing inspiration from these natural mechanisms it offers a solution that is effective and intuitive, a testament to utilising nature’s principles for innovative applications.

The latent heat effect in action

The key to the performance of Frosco’s foam lies in enhancing this latent heat phenomenon through its patented formulation – which consists of entirely plant-based and environmentally friendly ingredients.

So far the foam has produced consistently remarkable results during internal testing. Buds can be protected for several hours at temperatures down to -20°C.

Bud burst emerging through the foam chrysalis

In addition, independent lab tests simulating realistic conditions have demonstrated complete protection against external temperatures that drop to -4°C.

The results from the independent lab tests are set to be published ahead of Spring 2025.

The foam holds buds at 0°C, which is no coincidence. It is at this point that water transitions between its liquid and solid state, and is therefore when the latent heat phenomenon kicks in.

What is next for Frosco?

Our current focus is on finalising the application of the foam. From handheld solutions to field-scale systems, we are exploring a variety of technologies to ensure the foam can be deployed efficiently across a range of scenarios.

One of the latest developments is a knapsack sprayer. We are making excellent progress in designing a specialised nozzle that can produce high-quality foam. This is a key step towards enabling individuals and small teams to harness the power of the foam on smaller scales.

Simultaneously, we are developing fieldscale solutions that can integrate seamlessly into current vineyard operations.

The orange line, representing the internal temperature of the foam, shows that it maintains a consistent temperature at around 0°C.

By adapting existing industrial spray systems, we aim to enable the rapid and efficient application of foam on a large scale – requiring only an individual or a small team to operate.

Our goal is to ensure a smooth transition for those who already rely on such systems,

allowing them to adopt the foam with minimal disruption.

In December, we tested one such system in Herefordshire, and we will share further updates in next month’s edition of Vineyard Magazine.

Climate smart viticulture

The effect that climate change is having on growing conditions has made the exploration of “climate smart viticulture” into a key research trend worldwide.

More and more work is being done on microclimate zoning of vineyards in order to better manage vineyards and defend against extreme weather in a more sustainable way.

Understanding the topographical features like elevation, slope and aspect at the micro level within a vineyard space allows vineyard managers to create a more effective plan for the frost control measures they implement in the early spring. Sensor technologies and drones can be employed to provide valuable real-time data into local environmental conditions, but these sensors can have a high cost to implement.

Detailed work is being undertaken in the UK to better understand the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to the local wine sector. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment has presented a policy brief that gives a detailed analysis that supports

the proactive response to climate change.

This policy brief emphasises the limitations that the English Quality Sparkling Wine PDO puts on producers who may need to source grapes from other counties as a risk-mitigation strategy when frost damage strikes their land. The report’s recommendations highlight the need for long term decision making that allows flexibility to create a sustainable industry in the long term.

While many wine estates have taken measures to be climate smart, these actions are not always measurable. Denbies Wine Estate in the Surrey Hills National Landscape broke the mould in this regard by being named as the UK’s first Net Zero vineyard in Spring 2024. They worked with the Environmental Asset Management company Beyond Zero to measure their baselines and develop a plan to reach their target.

Denbies had already been actively reducing

carbon emissions from the winery and vineyard, but they were able to harness the UK Carbon Code of Conduct framework to measure and verify the emissions that came from their wine production. They were also able to create base maps of the Estate’s so-called “natural capital” – a comprehensive breakdown of the above ground biomass and soil types of the property which allowed the carbon capture potential to be recorded. This meant that as well as continuing to reduce emissions even further, they were able to institute land management changes which would boost the sequestration of carbon through the vineyard soils and habitats.

The upshot was that the 2023 figures demonstrated that Denbies had sequestered more carbon than it had emitted – to the tune of minus 96 tonnes of CO2e. That’s a reduction equivalent to the annual average carbon footprint of 7.5 people in the UK. READ

Denbies Wine Estate was named as the UK’s first Net Zero vineyard in Spring 2024

Photo: Helen Dixon

Harnessing the power of wind

Challenges and solutions.

Winter is the ideal time for ordering, planting new, or rejuvenating existing windbreaks. Whether for a vineyard about to be planted or one that is well-established, understanding wind’s impact in viticulture is essential for deciding when and where to install windbreaks. Compared to planting and maintaining vines, windbreaks are relatively inexpensive to establish and become increasingly cost-effective as their benefits mature over time.

The role of wind in viticulture

Wind significantly influences the environment and terroir of vineyards, particularly in coastal and exposed areas. Features such as valleys, altitude, and proximity to the sea amplify wind effects, impacting vineyard planning and vine orientation. Properly managed, wind can become an ally rather than a liability.

Benefits and challenges

Wind, though often viewed as a challenge, offers several advantages in viticulture. Moderate winds reduce spring frost risks, cool vines on hot days, and limit humidity, thereby lowering the incidence of fungal diseases. However, excessive wind creates its own set of challenges.

Strong or sustained winds can cool and dry vines excessively, reducing vigor, delaying ripening, and resulting in smaller leaves, fewer grape clusters, and lower yields. Such winds exacerbate water stress, especially in sandy or chalky soils. Physical damage includes

broken shoots, stripped leaves, and damaged inflorescences, compromising vine health and increasing susceptibility to diseases like powdery mildew and grapevine trunk diseases. High winds may also cause soil erosion, particularly in vineyards on steep slopes or with insufficient ground cover.

Wind damage and identification

Young, fast-growing vines are particularly vulnerable during spring and early summer, with tender shoots often damaged or broken. As the growing season progresses, mature leaves may suffer tearing, reducing photosynthesis and impacting fruit quality as well as the vine’s ability to withstand cold. Wind-damaged canes may wilt and die, often misdiagnosed as disease or insect damage, but closer inspection reveals breakage at the base.

Mitigating the effects

To counteract the challenges of wind, growers should prioritise shelter when establishing vineyards. Selecting protected sites and orienting vine rows parallel to prevailing winds are good starting points. However, as climate patterns shift and vineyards have long lifespans, these measures may not always suffice.

Natural and artificial windbreaks provide more adaptable solutions. Natural windbreaks, such as tree rows, and man-made structures, like windproof fencing or netting, offer essential protection. Italian alders are a popular choice in UK vineyards for their fast growth, straight

form, and minimal bird-nesting suitability. Other commonly used species include poplars, hawthorn, ash, and beech.

Well-placed windbreaks improve the microclimate within a vineyard by reducing windspeed. This minimises physical damage, protects leaves and fruit from whipping, and enhances photosynthesis. They also support water conservation by reducing evaporation and improving the efficiency of nutrient and pesticide applications.

Designing effective windbreaks

The effectiveness of a windbreak depends on careful design and species selection. Tall, strategically placed windbreaks can insulate a vineyard’s microclimate, promoting pollination and fruit set while boosting yields. However, growers must ensure windbreaks do not cast excessive shade, compete with vines for nutrients, or introduce allelopathic effects that inhibit vine growth.

Temporary windbreaks, such as fabric sheeting, offer flexible, short-term solutions that can support young vines or the establishment of permanent structures. Permanent windbreaks, like treelines or hedges, provide long-lasting benefits but require careful placement to avoid operational interference or shading of vines.

Conclusion

Wind, while challenging, can be managed effectively through careful planning and the implementation of windbreaks. By balancing its benefits - such as cooling, frost reduction, and disease prevention – with its potential drawbacks, growers can harness the advantages of wind to enhance vineyard resilience and fruit quality. As climate conditions evolve, these strategies will remain integral to sustaining the health and productivity of vineyards.

Photo: ©VineWorks 2024

Five steps for managing trunk diseases

Winter

pruning is the main period for grapevine trunk disease infection, so as the New Year begins, Hutchinsons agronomists Rob Saunders and Will Robinson

explain how to manage the risks.

Grapevine trunk disease is a catch-all term for a plethora of diseases, the most common being Esca, Eutypa, Botryosphaeria, Petri disease, Black-foot, and Phomopsis.

Each has different symptoms and is caused by different pathogens; some have more than one. Esca (Black Measles), for example, is associated with three fungi species, and is characterised by dark red or yellow stripes on leaves and a shiny tar-like substance that oozes from wounds; Eutypa lata infection can lead to stunted shoots and yellow, distorted leaves; while Botrosphaeria dieback (caused by Botryosphaeriaceae fungi) can lead to ‘dead arm’ dieback and wedge-shaped staining in the vascular system in the trunk and cordons of older vines.

While there are many different types of trunk disease, they are similar in how they infect vines, before going on to kill surrounding tissue and reduce/stop the flow of water and nutrients in the plant’s xylem and phloem.

Once infected, there is no treatment, although healthy vines will be better at living with disease than stressed plants, and the vigour of Piwi varieties offers more tolerance than most traditional cultivars.

Either way, the aim is to prevent, or at least reduce infection risk in the first place by following five simple steps.

1. Prune when dry

As with most fungal diseases, humid, wet conditions exacerbate risk, and can trigger spore release from old, infected wood, so prune in cold, dry conditions wherever possible.

Pruning in the rain also increases the risk of fungal spores splashing into the air and landing on new material to infect.

2. Avoid large cuts

Bigger cuts present a larger surface area for spores to land on, germinate, and colonise surrounding wood, so try to avoid cutting into wood more than two years old, or larger in diameter than a five pence piece. Equally, minimise the number of cuts made to limit potential entry points for infection. The ideal is four cuts; two to remove old canes, then two more to make next year’s spurs. Summer shoot selection can be beneficial, as dry conditions and active growth support rapid healing, reducing trunk disease risk. It also helps with general canopy management too.

The Simonit & Sirch Pruning principles offer useful advice for sympathetic pruning.

3. Leave a stub

When pruned, vines do not callus like trees, instead they form a ‘desiccation cone’ of dead wood inside the plant where vessels supplying the removed wood close. Leave a stub of at least 1cm when pruning to maintain continuity of sap flow in the remaining stems.

4. Tag affected vines

Trunk disease symptoms can be hard to identify in winter, so remain vigilant throughout the season. If you see vines showing symptoms during summer, label them so they can be managed and pruned appropriately that winter.

It may be possible to salvage an infected

vine by cutting back into healthy wood below the infection and re-growing a replacement from a healthy shoot from above the graft.

5. Keep it clean

Cleanliness during pruning helps minimise the spread of disease from one vine to the next, so if practical, disinfect secateurs and other pruning equipment after every vine. This could be as simple as a pack of wipes or a spray bottle, but there are also secateurs available with built-in blade disinfection after every cut.

Even if it is not practical to clean after every vine, it would be false economy not to clean after pruning a tagged vine that was seen to be infected in the previous season.

All disinfectants that claim to kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses will work.

Photo: © Martin Apps, Countrywide Photographic

Sparkling atmosphere

An extra hall, new exhibitors, exciting English and Welsh wines to taste and a sparkling atmosphere combined to make the Vineyard & Winery Show another spectacular post-harvest celebration.

The Vineyard & Winery Show saw 130 exhibitors highlighting a range of vital vineyard services from agronomy and accountancy to bottling, trellising and labelling, alongside stands crammed with the latest machinery, from under-vine trimmers to high tech grape harvesters.

Well-established businesses were joined by relative newcomers looking to make their mark as the viticulture industry continues to grow steadily and UK wines, particularly those of the sparkling variety, continue to make waves.

With demand from exhibitors continuing to increase, organisers this year had to add on a third hall which, amongst other attractions, was home to a wine hub showcasing wines made from UK Piwi grapes such as Divico, Solaris and Cabaret Noir.

The other wine hubs were as busy as ever as visitors sampled some of the best of the UK’s increasingly well-regarded output. Rather than each showcasing the same wines, one of this year’s hubs featured The Golden 50 – wines that had won a gold medal at one of nine competitions throughout the year – and the other was devoted to wines featured in Vineyard magazine by columnist Matthew Jukes throughout 2024.

Matthew again delivered a flawless exposition of six of his favourite

wines at his ever-popular masterclass, while Piwi wines had their moment in the spotlight at their own masterclass, another first for this year.

The buzz around the tasting hubs was matched by the buzz around the stands, with visitors taking the opportunity to catch up with friends, chat to suppliers, run their hands over glossy new bits of kit, talk to professionals and generally seek out inspiration and advice.

The extra stands made it feel busier than ever, while the extra space still allowed room for visitors to chat and enjoy a few hours of downtime following a challenging harvest at the end of, for many, a tricky season.

With plans already in place for another Vineyard & Winery Show at the Kent Event Centre, Detling next year (19 November for those with a diary handy), it’s clear that the show has become an established highlight for those whose vintages are themselves becoming increasingly well established in the competitive arena of fine wines.

Exhibitors came from far and wide, with some making the journey across the Channel. Specialist French cork manufacturer Bourassé was one such company, with export manager Patricia Houppe declaring the show “a great place to meet new customers”.

It was Bourassé’s second visit to the show, and the company had a full range of corks on display, suitable for both still and sparkling wines. The

corks are manufactured in Portugal and finished in France, with even the company’s more technical products made of 96% natural cork.

The range includes the Cristal, which promises “absolute neutrality” and preserves wines for up to ten years, and the Jump SC which is moulded from de-aromatised cork pulp using supercritical CO2 and is designed for sparkling wines.

Agrii agronomist Gary Saunders also noted the “good buzz” throughout the three halls of the show and said he had found visitors “upbeat” despite a difficult year which had seen limited spraying opportunities because of the high rainfall levels.

“Growers this year faced lots of disease pressure but had limited opportunities to do anything about it,” he commented. “The poor weather also meant that if they chose to harvest later to ensure better sugar levels, they again risked disease issues. Despite that there’s a good vibe at the show and growers are keen to talk about how Agrii can help them.”

It was the third year at the show for machinery manufacturer Rob Burr of Pinks Group Ltd. “People buy from people, and that’s why it’s great to come along to a show like this, chat to old customers and find some new ones,” he commented. “It’s a really good show and that’s why I keep coming back.”

Rob was demonstrating a number of his high quality, bespoke pieces of equipment including an undervine strimmer, a contractor-spec flail mower and an Ecoline rotary mower, all manufactured in house and built to last.

“My machinery is built without a lifespan,” said Rob. “It has a threeyear warranty, but I’m not expecting to have to deal with any claims.”

It would be reasonable to assume that the oldest established company at the Vineyard & Winery Show was Murphy & Son, Nottingham-based suppliers of most of the ingredients and additives needed to produce wine apart from the grapes themselves. <<

Gary Saunders

Founded in 1887 by Albert John Murphy, who recognised the importance of water in producing drinks such as ale and porter and helped brewers improve their craft, the company has since built on that philosophy while expanding to support the wider beverage industry.

It now supplies everything from yeast and finings to nutrients, stabilisers and cleaning products, providing customers globally with technical support as well as products.

“We have a 60 strong team with considerable expertise in winemaking. What makes us different is the free consultancy support we offer alongside a full range of end-to-end product solutions,” explained technical sales manager Derek Orford.

“We pride ourselves on our customer focus and are always happy to talk to customers about what issues they are facing and suggest technical and product solutions to tackle them.”

With 130 exhibitors to choose from, plentiful wines to sample and a seminar programme that saw attendees queueing in the corridor

ahead of some of the talks, the cake still had room for some icing, in the form of not one, but two wine masterclasses.

Again, there was something for everyone, with a distinct contrast between Matthew Jukes’ inimitable delivery, littered enthusiastically with metaphors and similes galore, and the more technical presentation by Define Wine’s head winemaker Nick Lane.

Nick’s look at six Piwi wines, made from grapes selected for their disease resistance and their suitability for the UK’s cooler, damper climate, was a fascinating insight into the details behind the wines selected for the occasion as he highlighted harvesting dates, sugar levels and other detailed information about the grapes and the winemaking process.

The wines set out for tasting included two from The Gunyah Vineyard, the Mountfitchet Red made from Cabaret Noir and Regen and the Mountfitchet White (Souvignier Gris/Sauvignac), First Crush from The Rutland Vineyard (Caberet Noir, Acolon and Pinot Noir) and two Divicos, one from Oast Wood and the other Yotes Court’s The Favourite.

Nick Lane

Maintaining the integrity of the wine

“The grower is focused from start to finish on developing the best possible product and our goal is to help them maintain the integrity of the wine so that when the consumer drinks it, it tastes exactly as the winemaker intended it to.”

Roz Cormack, marketing co-ordinator with Evolution Bottling and Packaging Solutions, is clear on the company’s overriding philosophy when working with an impressive client list that includes the Gusborne Estate in Kent.

The company works with a carefully selected group of Italian-based equipment manufacturers to deliver bottling and packaging solutions for wine producers across the country.

Based in Peebles in the Scottish Borders, Evolution established itself supplying bottling equipment to the equally quality focused spirit industry, and has now turned its considerable expertise to working with winemakers as the industry continues to grow.

When the Gusborne Estate asked Evolution to supply in-house bottling equipment, Evolution was quick to recommend MBF, an Italian company with a strong pedigree and

patented technology that minimises oxygen pickup during the filling process to ensure the integrity of the product is maintained.

“It’s vital that the filling operation does not detract in any way from the wine the winemaker has taken so much time and care to create,” said Roz. “It’s a painstaking process and it’s important that the last step in that process is not detrimental to it.”

MBF, a long-term partner of Evolution, worked with the University of Verona to develop highly specialised equipment that minimises the amount of oxygen absorbed by the wine during the filing process while delivering precise fill levels and operating at speeds of between 1,000 and 36,000 bottles per hour.

Evolution also partners with a wide range of specialist manufacturers including PE Labellers, Robino and Galandrino, which supplies capsulators, and TMG, renowned for palletisers, depalletisers and case packing machines. The company also installs advanced inspection systems from Logics and Controls as it seeks to provide a comprehensive, customerfocused service to the country’s winemakers.

“Once growers get to a certain size, they tend to want to bring their bottling process in house as it gives them more control,” said Roz. “At that point they need advice on the right sort of filling and packing systems for their operation, and that’s where Evolution has the experience and the knowledge to help.

“English winemakers are now producing a premium product, and have been for some time, and it’s important that the integrity of that product is maintained when it reaches the bottle.”

While based in Peebles, Evolution has a support team of project managers, customer service staff and engineers covering the UK and Ireland standing by to install and maintain the quality equipment it supplies.

Roz said the Vineyard & Winery Show was a great opportunity to meet potential customers and chat to existing contacts, and described it as “a really good show that just keeps getting bigger”. She said it was particularly exciting to see growers who had only just planted their vines when Evolution first attended the show three years ago and hear from them about this year’s harvest.

Choosing sustainable packaging doesn’t mean compromising on protection

When you send out your products, there’s one thing you care about most: ensuring they arrive in perfect condition. Packaging isn’t just about covering something up; it’s about delivering peace of mind. It’s the layer that protects your hard work, ensures your customers receive what they’ve ordered without hassle, and leaves a lasting impression. Damaged goods don’t just mean frustration – they mean lost time, extra costs, and the risk of disappointed customers. Great packaging eliminates those worries, allowing you to focus on growing your business, confident that your products are in safe hands.

At the same time, more customers are paying attention to the details. It’s not just about what’s inside the box anymore – it’s about how it’s sent. People notice when businesses take steps to reduce waste, avoid plastic, and make environmentally conscious choices. Using packaging made from recycled materials shows that you care not just about your products but about the bigger picture too. It’s a small but powerful way to demonstrate your values and connect with customers who share them. Choosing sustainable packaging doesn’t mean compromising on protection; in fact, the right design and materials can improve protection – keeping your products safe while being kind to the planet.

Highlighting the benefits of sustainable packaging materials made solely from recycled, natural materials at the Vineyard & Winery Show was the planet-focused, sustainable packaging innovator Ezee Group International (EGI).

“Our packaging not only protects wine bottles during transit but also safeguards the reputation of our clients by meeting modern sustainability standards,” said Beth Pizzey, EGI’s Head of Business Development. “In a market where customer loyalty hinges on service and eco-credentials, we have created an innovative solution specifically designed to facilitate effective delivery via courier networks.”

Harriet Clifford, EGI’s Sales Coordinator, highlighted how their Pulpit packaging is specifically designed to meet the business needs of their customers, focusing on speed, protection and sustainable disposal.

“In today’s market, earning customer loyalty requires businesses to deliver products quickly, without damage, and without harming the environment. Our Pulpit range achieves this by combining user-friendly designs, robust protection and eco-friendly materials. The moulded fibre pulp we use acts as an effective shock absorber, minimising the impact of bumps and vibrations during transit. This reduces the risk of breakage, even for lighter and thinner bottles, which are increasingly used to lower carbon footprints,” Harriet explained.

EGI has developed innovative packaging that is highly sought after by manufacturers and retailers leveraging e-commerce and courier networks to sell wine, spirits and beers to online customers. With shipping and packaging accounting for over 50% of wine’s overall carbon footprint, addressing sustainability in this area is critical.

“Many wineries are adopting eco-friendly measures, such as using recycled labels or moving from foil capsules to wax seals. Innovative packaging like ours allows them to further reduce their environmental impact by safely shipping lighter bottles or larger quantities without increasing the risk of damage,” Harriet added.

At the show, EGI displayed their full Pulpit product range to attendees, which is designed to fit 50 different bottle sizes and shapes, in configurations from one to 24 bottles per shipment. “Our team works closely with each customer to understand their needs and will advise the most suitable packaging solution and/or provide a bespoke service to meet their requirements. This helps customers save time, reduce costs, and minimise environmental impact,” Beth explained.

Beth and Harriet reflected on their experience at the show, stating, “The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming, both with those who visited our stand and with other exhibitors. We received a lot of great feedback from people eager to improve their eco-credentials, which was wonderful to hear.”

As the demand for sustainable solutions grows, wineries must carefully evaluate their packaging options to remain competitive. By choosing materials that align with both functional needs and environmental values, brands can position themselves for long-term success in an increasingly eco-conscious marketplace. Whether through innovative products like EGI’s Pulpit range or other sustainable alternatives, the future of wine packaging lies in a balance between protection and preservation – of both the product and the planet.

EGI’s presence at the Vineyard & Winery Show showcased their commitment to sustainability and effective packaging. With a key focus on customer service, EGI continues to innovate in sustainable packaging, proving that eco-friendly choices can deliver outstanding performance.

For further information or to discuss your needs please call Ezee Group International on 01858 575454 or visit egipackaging.com

Beth Pizzey and Harriet Clifford

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Matthew Jukes’ masterclass

A fascinating introduction to six of the expert speaker’s favourite wines.

“An amusing little number with plenty of freshness and not too much acidity that balances down to earth notes with an exuberant sparkle.”

No, not the tasting notes from a wine list but a pretty fair summary of a masterclass held by the inimitable Matthew Jukes.

Matthew’s masterclasses are always a popular feature of the Vineyard & Winery Show and this year’s lunchtime event, sponsored by Gullands Solicitors, was another fascinating introduction to six of the expert speaker’s favourite wines.

The English wines put through their paces had all featured in the two most recent editions of Vineyard and were introduced as “the wines that really, really got me going.”

To put such a compliment into context, Matthew reminded his all-ears audience of the vast amount of wine he tastes professionally, although his enthusiastic and inspired presentation gives the impression that every sip is his first.

The first wine put under the taste microscope was one of three that featured in Matthew’s column headed ‘Have-a-go heroes’, and was the 2023 Gewurztraminer from Biddenden Vineyards. Describing the wine as “life-affirming”, Matthew said it proved Gewurztraminer “doesn’t have to be fat and blousy like a pantomime dame.”

Having been invited to taste the 2022 vintage, with which he admitted he had been far from impressed, he said the 2023 had “tamed this exotic creature”.

Next up was Vagabond Wines’ Solena Batch 003, which Matthew described as “a skin-contact multi-vintage Ortega” that was “glorious and very complex” but “fresh as a daisy”, a tribute that reflected an earlier comment that he was looking for wines that had balance and freshness.

The Solena was, he said, “supercool, shocking and delicious at the same time”.

Sam Lindo from Camel Valley, who was in the audience for the presentation, was singled out for special praise by Matthew. “Among the

have-a-go heroes in this country, you are the captain,” he told him.

The compliment referred to the vineyard’s 2022 Pinot Noir red, which he described as “heavenly and varietally accurate”. The ‘havea-go’ connection referred to the fact that Sam picked the grapes as if for sparkling wine and put them through a blender before pressing them. In his Vineyard review, Matthew summed up: “Sam is a genius.”

The second trio of wines came under the column theme of ‘purity’, with Matthew pointing out: “‘Complex’ is not always a good thing.”

The Greyfriars/Goldenford 2022 Chardonay was first up and was certainly not damned with faint praise. “One of the greatest Chardonnays made this year in this country” was Matthew’s verdict.

He also pointed out that it was only £18. “A bottle, not a glass,” he added, before delivering a mild rebuke to vineyards who over-price their offerings. “How are you going to get your wines out there if people can’t afford to try them?” he asked.

Turning to Great Wheatley Vineyard’s 2023 House on the Hill Bacchus, Matthew complimented it on avoiding “the dip” in the mid palate and described it as “a serious and rewarding wine” that was “seriously genius work”. He added: “Good for Bacchus isn’t good enough any more” and praised the winemaker’s “clever use of oak”. Perhaps a surprise inclusion in a round-up of wines good enough to impress one of the world’s leading wine writers, but clearly deserving its place, was Warehorne Vineyard’s 2023 Oasthouse Divico, made from the up-and-coming Piwi varietal.

“Within 12 months of being talked about it’s here on the table,” said Matthew, before adding that the three or four year-old vines had produced a “pure red wine”.

Although describing it as “a bit pricey at £30.99 a bottle, he said it was at the vanguard of a red wine revolution. “It’s a Guy Fawkes wine,” he concluded.

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A quality theme

For the fourth year the Vineyard & Winery Show’s seminar programme was sponsored by Ferovinum and Mitch Fowler CEO welcomed all visitors both familiar and new with a lively presentation based on the global positioning of the UK wine market.

Mitch Fowler presented figures relating to exports to the United States with a slide encouragingly entitled “The UK commands a premium position in the US Champagne and sparkling wine import market, driving revenue growth” with figures showing that UK Sparkling Wine has a high value per bottle (and is in fact positioned second in this category) and has therefore established a favourable position in the United States as a premium product. “We have established ourselves on the shelf as a product that can support premium economics in the long term, and that is great, and now we need to double down,” said Mitch.

The keynote speaker Patrick McGrath was welcomed to the stage and immediately captured the attention of the room. Patrick has a wealth of experience across many aspects of the wine industry having established the wine importing business, Hatch Mansfield thirty years ago he then took on the challenge of Domaine Evremond creating a grass roots vineyard and winery business from scratch in conjunction with his friend Pierre Emmanuel Tattinger. Patrick described the journey of Domaine Evremond since the beginning as based on the principle of friendship.

Patrick highlighted key areas that he felt were vital for the industry. One of these was tourism and another area was collaboration; vineyards working together for the common good. Highlighting how working together could work he pointed out: “Nine vineyards in the same area would probably have nine different sugar suppliers,” working together in these areas could make a huge difference “especially when margins are tight,” he added.

Patrick pointed out that learning from other wine regions is important. “One of the things that is done well in New Zealand is big and small

producers working together and the telling of the stories of the vineyards. The small premium brands do well in New Zealand because of the work that has been done by large brands such as Villa Maria or Oyster Bay in the past. We need to collectively get behind the big brands because if Nyetimber succeed, if Chapel Down and Ridgeview do well then there will be more listings of other English wines, the big brands will help open the door,” he said.

One message that followed through the entire first session was the need to maintain the recognition of English Sparkling wine as a quality product. “Premium, premium, premium, we have this premium we must not lose it,” said Patrick. “I am glad that people ask why is English Sparkling Wine expensive, it is because it is a premium product. Leading with sparkling wines allows the introduction of still wines to the market

Patrick McGrath MW

2024 SHOW REVIEW

as well,” he concluded. Patrick pointed to meaningful PDO’s as a way to ensure premium quality is maintained.

Continuing the first session of the morning Nicola Bates CEO of WineGB launched the WineGB Three-year strategy. The strategy highlighted the industry vision as “Great Britain is a sustainable wine region of world renown, recognised and celebrated for the quality of its wines and visitor experience,” more details of this exciting three-year strategy have been outlined by WineGB and can be found on page 60.

The session concluded with Emma Rice of the Board of Directors at WineGB who spoke about the work being done with regards to PDO and PGI. A representative sub committee from large growers and small growers across regions in England have spent a lot of time on this proposal Emma explained. These proposals are only relevant to England.

“The biggest problem we have is that in the consumers mind there is no difference between England and English on a wine label but as we all know it is possible to put Wine of England on a label and not go through any of the PDO or PGI certification. We want to ensure that we are maintaining the quality of English wine and encourage more people to use this scheme. For the future of our industry we are keen to protect the term England as well as English.

“We also want to make sure that we do not exclude people and we allow every type and style of winemaking to be included in the system. We don’t want to stifle innovation,” said Emma.

Under the proposals if people don’t want to engage with the scheme the wines would need to be labelled without the use of the word England for example using United Kingdom or where not in conflict with regional PDO’s the county name. Emma pointed out that this would bring England in line with the rest of the world.

“English wine and particularly English Sparkling Wine has proved itself to a point where we need to be on a level with our international competitors such as Champagne or high level Cava. We do not want to sabotage that reputation that has been hard won,” said Emma. Describing the differences between PDO and PGI Emma said: “Both have a strong link to place but PDO also has strict rules regarding production method. Both are about where the wines come from but the PDO also includes how it is made. So we are trying to widen the PGI to include every variety. Basically if you can grow it in England and make quality wine in England from those vines then under the new proposals it can be included in the PGI.”

The proposals for the Sparkling PDO for England will include a requirement of at least 18 months in bottle with a minimum of 15 months on lees. “I am aware that time on cork is just as important as time on lees,” said Emma. “There will also be a requirement for whole bunch pressing (this is to allow for the fact that machines may at some point be able to pick whole bunches) and the vintage specification will be tightened meaning if there is a vintage on the bottle 90% must come from that vintage. (That figure is currently 85%). The natural sugar ripeness will also be raised to 8% and there will be the introduction of a maximum press pressure and a maximum extraction rate,” Emma concluded.

“The Sparkling PGI will require the method of production to be clear on the label,” said Emma. “So Charmat, Traditional Method, Carbonated, Col Fondo, Pet Nat it does not matter what method of production it is but it has to be clear on the label,” Emma concluded.

These proposals will still need to go through a formal consultation with DEFRA.

INTRODUCING MINIBLOCK

Climate impact

It was standing room only for the frost protection seminar that highlighted the work of a new collaborative project that utilises £300,000 of funding from DEFRA and Innovate UK.

Professor Steve Dorling introduced the seminar session by highlighting three key words; collaboration, data and resilience, that he said were vital for the future of the industry. He then reflected that: “Frost was not a huge issue during the 2024 season in England and Wales but we do not have to go back many years to see situations where it was. This year Canada, Australia, Germany and France have all faced frost issues with serious impacts on yields, so the frost problem is not going away.

“We have a collaborative project that aims to produce a better forecasting service for frost. You as growers all have got site specific conditions and we need to know what those site specific conditions are in order to improve our forecasts and sharing data preferably in real time will allow us to achieve this aim. The first question to answer is will intervention make a difference? This will depend on whether this is a radiation frost or an advection frost.

“The project is producing three outlets to help, a web app that incorporates your data, an alert system and the ability to speak to us in person on those days when it really matters. Frost is only relevant within the critical period so it is important that we receive this information from you and then we also need information relating to any frost damage.

“The critical thing with frost is knowing the difference in temperature at ground and bud height weather measurements are traditionally made at 1.5m above the ground but this is not where the buds are. We have done some analysis of temperature differences between 1.5m and the ground and this data shows that temp difference is about 2.5°C on average but it can be as much as 8°C in extreme circumstances and it is our job to know what kind of day we have got. Have we got one of those days with very cold ground temperatures? We have developed a methodology that distinguishes whether we are dealing with radiation frosts which are those events that you can intervene on with or an advection frosts which is just

one of those events where there is just tons of cold air out there and its windy. A good example of this would be the weather event colloquially known as ‘The Beast From the East,’ we all remember it. There are other events like it in the record. We are busy building a climatology of radiation versus advection frost events.”

Professor Dorling handed over to Dr Alistair Nesbit of Vinescapes who addressed the topic of what might happen in the future. “I have worked with Steve for many years and we have collaborated on several research papers about the impact of climate change. Some of this work has centred on how we can start to prepare for future challenges and one of those challenges is frost. We are currently on the path of the worst-case scenario for climate change. Back in 1970 the average temperature during the growing season in the south east was about 13°C which meant we could not grow varieties such as Pinot Noir because it was just too cold. This increase in temperature

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“Here’s to continuing to grow and connect with the vibrant UK vineyard and wine community. Mettryx is proud to be part of it! Congratulations to Jamie McGrorty and the whole event team on another fantastic Vineyard & Winery Show,” said Phil Walker, Co-Founder of Mettryx.

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Ian Beecher Jones

is one of the driving forces for the growth of the sector. The models show us that as time goes on more of the country will have the potential to grow these varieties. The data indicates that there will be a significant number of growing seasons in the near future with those favourable growing conditions of 2018 but we are still going to have a variable climate and so as a sector we are locked in to risk. Those bumper years and those extremely challenging years are here to stay.” Frost is one of the climate risks that we can actually do something about.”

WineGB are also part of the project and Phoebe French, communications manager highlighted the six partners working on the project; Agri, Agritech centre Weather Quest, Plumpton College, Vinescapes, Vinewatch and WineGB. The main aims are to produce highly localised site specific and variety specific frost data. The real purpose is to allow vineyard managers to make more informed choices when faced with frost. The project is working with multiple vineyards but is looking for more vineyards to collaborate with to make the project as accurate and reliable as possible.

Phoebe handed over to a representative of Plumpton College who discussed the work that is being done relating to the timing of bud burst and how this relates to frost risk. “A lot of work is being done on bud burst prediction models and a large proportion of that work has been done in other climates. It is important that we collect this information specifically for the UK,” he said. “We know that bud burst will happen once the cumulative temperature reaches a certain level. Questions surrounding this include: Will warmer weather through late winter and early spring caused by climate change result in those bud burst dates coming forward?”

The project aims to answer this vital but complicated vineyard question. “We have been looking at data from sensors at 0.5m and some

at 1.0m to see if this data gives variation in the cumulative temperatures. As we get into 2025 we will be collecting this data across numerous sites.

“Additionally the models that exist at the moment are all based on bud burst but we know that frost risk begins much earlier so it would be good if we could refine the data down so that we can pin point when those risks actually start. Temperature also has other influences around bud burst relating to the length of bud burst and the success of bud burst so there are a lot more areas which would make this data relevant.” As the project progresses and the data is collected across various sites at various times of the season the answers to these questions will become more apparent and updates on the project will be issued.

Ian Beecher Jones from JoJo’s vineyard spoke eloquently about being a partner vineyard for the project. “We have three different manufactures equipment to measure weather in the vineyard. One manufacturers weather station was reading 1.5°C below the other so now we have a third device as a referee,” he said with a laugh but “this is equipment we rely on for vital decisions,” he added. Commenting on being part of the project he said: “It has been quite interesting because the researchers want to see the result of a frost however as a grower I do not want to see the result of frost,” a comment which made the audience and the other speakers laugh. “We do have sensors in each of the varieties and over the next couple of years if we get frost I am sure you will hear about the impact on the various varieties.”

Professor Dorling opened the session up to questions from the audience and this led to a lively audience discussion. Annual variability and the possible collapse of the Gulf Stream were among the technical topics discussed and appreciation for all the speakers was shown by a prolonged round of applause.

Helping growers establish, manage and harvest as well as make, bottle, label and distribute

He may be reflecting on a successful year, but Will Croxford is not someone to sit back on his laurels.

Instead, the man at the helm of Croxford Wine Estates is planning new investment and new services as he continues to provide an end-to-end service that offers vineyards everything from establishment to distribution of the finished product, thanks to his joint ownership, with Dennis Hall, of Nene Valley Winery.

“We are proud to be able to offer a whole suite of services to help growers establish, manage and harvest their grapes as well as being able to make, bottle, label and distribute their wine if they need us to,” said Will.

“We are already looking forward to the 2025 season and have plans to add another 10 to 20 acres of vines at Croxford Wine Estates, as well as investing in new equipment so that we can continue to offer the best possible service to our management clients.”

While yields were down after a difficult year in which the weather did its level best to make life hard for growers, Will found plenty

of positives, particularly in the performance of his new Gregoire GT3 trailed grape harvester, bought earlier this year from Kentbased Kirkland UK.

“We have had fantastic feedback from clients who asked us to mechanically harvest their grapes,” said Will. “The results were really impressive and affirmed our decision to invest in the Gregoire. The quality was spot on and there was very little free run.

“Most of our growers have already switched over to mechanical harvesting, which is more efficient and avoids the labour force problems that the industry has been suffering from for some time. Given the great results we achieved this year, I am confident that many more will follow suit.”

While there is inevitably some free run from mechanical harvesting, Croxford Wine Estates collects that juice separately to prevent any possibility of early oxidation and uses it in other non-wine products, preserving the integrity of the vintage.

Ahead of the 2025 harvest, Will is planning to introduce a new Sthik grape intake hopper that will allow a client’s grapes to be

harvested and then delivered seamlessly into the press without any other handling.

With next year very much in mind, Will was busy at the show talking to suppliers about new equipment to support his own vineyard and his clients’ operations, with new trimmers and deleafers on the shopping list, as a well as a pre pruner and shoot puller.

“We are looking at new pneumatic leaf strippers so that we can extend the window both earlier and later in the season and give the grapes the best chance of achieving peak ripeness at the appropriate time,” he commented.

Another new service for 2025 will be netting vines to prevent bird damage. Based on research carried out in Croxford Wine Estates’ own vineyards, the multi-skilled team can now mechanically install and remove nets, which can be bought outright or hired for the season.

At the Vineyard & Winery Show, Will and Nene Valley Winery’s Dennis Hall were joined by Jodie Newman, a label designer who has been working closely with the team for some time. “Jodie creates our branding and designs our labels, and we are happy to recommend her to our wine-making clients,” said Will.

“A lot of growers, for whom making wine quite possibly represents a complete career change, aren’t aware of the legal requirements around labelling bottles. Jodie has that knowledge as well as a great eye for design.

“Supporting clients, building a strong relationship with them and using our experience to help them on their journey is at the heart of Croxford Wine Estates’ philosophy.”

Looking at the show itself, Will was full of admiration for the work of Jamie McGrorty and the small team that puts it all together.

“It has grown amazingly over the past few years and that’s great to see,” he said. “There was real quality at this year’s event, both in terms of the exhibitors and visitors.

“What makes it special for exhibitors is that the team is happy to listen and try to accommodate their needs. We will certainly be back next year.”

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Restaurant bottleneck

Seminar three was entitled “Restaurant bottleneck: Do listings matter?”

The panel discussion was chaired by Mitch Fowler of Ferovinum. The panel included representatives with experience of all aspects of the industry.

Laura Rhys MS is the Global Brand Ambassador at Gusbourne but was a Sommelier back in 2004. Laura pointed out that: “If you were looking at wine lists in the UK in 2004 you would have to go a really long way to find any significant wine on a list let alone a wine by the glass. By 2015 when I left the industry the difference in terms of perception of sommeliers, chefs and consumers was staggering. In the last ten years that has changed again. Now I think the on-trade can be hugely influential in getting English and Welsh wines in front of industry and in front of consumers. Laura noted however that there are significant challenges at the moment for the whole of the hospitality industry and it can be a struggle to get the wines in front of the decision makers.”

Anna Schena is the founder of Ferment Agency which is a brand management company. “The first thing I tell my clients is to think about their product, this is not just about making the best wine that you can but it is about knowing your scale and what you can do.” Anna made the point that the on-trade is a fantastic channel, but it may not be for everyone. “Many people think a restaurant listing will revolutionise their business but in reality, your business may not need to be revolutionised you just need to be very honest and know your positioning and where you want to be and success will come if you are consistent.”

Tim Wildman MW, who is the owner and winemaker at Lost in a Field, was asked by Mitch where he thought the wine industry was going. “My starting point is to look at what is different about selling English and Welsh wine in the UK.” Tim pointed out that trade relationships with English and Welsh producers often only last a few years “it can be a bit of a revolving door,” he said. Tim highlighted that managing expectations is key. “Sparkling wine has done well because it has solved a problem for the consumer as it has a similar style and packaging to Champagne and is local. Some of the top Pinot and Chardonnays do the same but the challenge for the on-trade and the off-trade is that there is still a large gap between the quality and value of table wine.” Mitch agreed there is more work to be done in this category.

Representing the on trade was Radu Iosif of the Tern Restaurant in Worthing where the wine list is comprised exclusively of Wines made in England. “The best way for a producer to sell their wines to us is to come and meet us and explain the story of the wines to us, explain the method

used to make the wine, help us to sell the wine, this helps the customer to have a good memory of the wine.” he said. “Some customers are afraid to buy a bottle of English wine but when producers help us to provide wine by the glass this gets them comfortable with English wine.”

Al Thorpe from Wines Under the Bonnet pointed out that “We don’t have a long history of wine growing culture in the UK and we are trying to run before we can walk. We are competing with countries that have hundreds of years of connections with towns and restaurants and the local vineyards. Barcelona is a good example of a place with great connections to the local Catalan wines,” he said.

Simon Huntingdon, client manager at Itasca Wines made the bold statement: “I do not think the on-trade matters for everyone. We make wines for very small producers to large producers making hundreds of thousands of bottles a year. For most of the producers if they do on-trade the purpose of it is not really to do on-trade because you cannot make any money out of it. Because restaurants don’t want to hold any more than six bottles at a time due to space and then producers have hosted the team so they know enough about the wines, there is no margin left, so they are in the on-trade for brand visibility to encourage people to buy direct. I am being flippant when I say that on-trade does not matter for smaller producers but if those producers can sell 80-85% of their wines at the cellar door at full margin that is how they make money.

Once again the panel were challenged with plenty of lively discussions from the audience including topics such as pricing expectations of wines by the glass.

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2024 SHOW REVIEW

Sustainable agronomy support

A “sustainable agronomy support solution for the small grower” was launched at the Vineyard & Winery Show by leading agronomy firm Hutchinsons.

Innovation agronomist Rob Saunders explained that the new offering consisted of a comprehensive vineyard guide that was available, free, on request, alongside the opportunity to sign up for more tailored, bespoke advice for a small annual fee.

“We are offering a huge amount of free information that will be useful as an ‘aide memoire’ to experienced growers but will be especially helpful to new entrants to the industry, coupled with a low-cost subscription service designed to really make a difference,” he explained.

For just £285 a year, subscribers will receive regular updates to technical information, approved product listings and spray programmes, a monthly bulletin, and telephone and email support from a Hutchinsons agronomist.

The free Hutchinsons Vineyard Guide is divided into six easy-to-read sections covering everything from soil preparation before planting, rootstock selection and ongoing nutrition through to pest, disease and weed control.

There is also advice on sprayer calibration and tank mix sequences plus conversion tables and an annually updated section listing approved crop protection materials, alongside an outline spray programme. The ring binder-style publication also provides a useful list of monthly jobs to be carried out in the vineyard.

Growers who take up the subscription option will also be entitled to one leaf/ petiole analysis each year as well as the option of in-person visits during the season at an additional cost. “This is a flexible offering which allows all growers to benefit from a wealth of free advice but then either subscribe for more detailed support or go a step further and buy in additional expertise as they need it,” said Rob.

“Compared to the hourly cost of bringing in an agronomist, this is a way for new and smaller growers, in particular, to give themselves the best chance of success.

“There are now more than 1,000 vineyards registered in the UK, and a lot of those are quite small sites, perhaps covering just a couple of acres, owned and run by growers who may not necessarily be able to justify

full, in-person, agronomy support.

“This guide is part of a new service Hutchinsons is offering which will give smallerscale growers access to sustainable, high quality agronomy advice and ongoing advice.

“We want to support this growing industry, and seasons such as the one we have just experienced have highlighted the importance of good crop management and well-planned crop protection in maintaining a productive vineyard.”

As always, the Hutchinsons stand at the Vineyard & Winery Show was impressive and busy, with a wealth of agronomists on hand to talk to existing and potential customers about the wide range of products and services on offer from what is still a family-run business.

Free guide

The business has grown to become one of the country’s leading agricultural and horticultural input advice and supply companies and currently employs more than 470 people, more than half of whom are directly involved with providing professional agronomic services.

The Hutchinsons Vineyard Guide reflects figures from WineGB which show a rise of nearly 10% in the number of registered UK vineyards in the past year. While the average size is around four hectares, this masks the fact that there are many relatively small-scale sites covering less than a hectare, where vine growing is a diversification or a lifestyle choice. “It is those smaller growers that we want to help with this particular product,” Rob concluded.

To receive a copy of the free guide, register at www.hutchinsons.co.uk or to register an interest in the agronomy subscription package, contact alison.ridgway@hlhltd.co.uk

While the 2025 crop protection update for the Hutchinsons Vineyard Guide will be free to all those who register for a copy, a charge will normally apply to subsequent updates as part of the subscription package.

Rob Saunders

CARVERS HILL

Man cannot live on wine alone

One of England’s most respected winemakers, with a string of awards and trophies under her belt, Emma Rice is now working as an independent winemaking consultant to both new and established wine businesses in the UK. An early graduate of the BSc at Plumpton College, she has been at the forefront of our industry since 2008, heavily involved with WineGB, currently as a Director on the Board. She just completed the first harvest in the brand new winery at Carvers Hill Estate in Wiltshire, where vinegrowing and winemaking are only a part of a bigger enterprise.

The seemingly unending growth of the industry continues with more planting planned for 2025 and beyond. Those who have recently planted, or who are already committed to planting next year, may be reading on the WineGB Forum and in the wider press about the fairly depressing nature of the 2024 harvest. Perhaps wondering about their life choices and what they have got themselves into!

The stark difference between last year with bumper yields (although let’s all admit 2023 wasn’t quite the ‘perfect’ vintage touted in the media), and the meagre crop most vineyards extracted this year, was brought into clear focus. Growers without contracts were left with grapes for which they had no buyer, wineries turned away fruit that didn’t make the grade and vineyard teams had to make hard decisions as to what to pick and what to discard. Dreams of making Burgundian-style Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were replaced by the necessity to make sparkling base wine (which will no doubt be great given a few years on lees).

Never has it been clearer that a healthy wine production business in the UK needs more than just wine to thrive. Working with both established and newly founded wineries, the most successful operations have more than one string to their bows. Jack Bartholomew, MD of Carvers Hill Estate and team have more than the grape harvest on their plate in fact they are spinning more plates than a circus performer! Carvers

Hill, planted in 2021 with the first perfectly formed crop in 2023 and now, has a fully operational winery providing a great example of a diverse operation. Just under six hectares of predominantly Pinot Noir clones have been planted next to what is now the winery and event venue. A total refurbishment of the old farm buildings and a desire to utilise the entire footprint of the original structure led to a building with considerably more capacity than the vineyard would ever require. The winery inhabits just one corner of the building with floor to ceiling glass windows looking through to a spectacular event space capable of seating 150 guests. A commercial kitchen, a chef’s table, as well as the vast hall provides a blank canvas for any event. The immaculate grounds give way to more space in the summer months with the possibility of celebrations and events within the vineyard. Over the harvest period the whole team have been immersed in picking grapes, setting up 50th birthday parties and dispatching stock for clients.

No expense was spared with the mezzanine level operating as a private members’ space for more intimate events, corporate hire for away day training and Board meetings. Tim Griffiths, the owner, already had a thriving private members’ wine club, Le Grand Société, based on his winery Domaine de Bellevue in Bordeaux. Carvers Hill and the first wines made from the vines in Wiltshire are now an integral part of the membership offering. The

first small-scale Rosé made in 2023 is already sold out and the 2024 is eagerly awaited. Members can hire the private mezzanine suite and store their own wine collections on site (under bond). The storage facilities are fully bonded – with both a Producer Licence and a full Excise Licence for third party storage. Both members and local wine merchants take advantage of the facility and have wines delivered in and out of the bonded warehouses at their convenience. Ideal for long-term storage of wine on lees, the

warehouses are temperature-controlled, with no natural light.

Whilst Tim is still operating the wider arable farm (the grain store is next to the winery) there are several other diversification projects on-site. There is a parcel of land set-aside for the village to grow vegetables in a community scheme both outside and in polytunnels. The same group of locals also readily volunteered to come and pick the grapes on several days. A section of woodland, otherwise under-

utilised, is about to become home to several Luxury Cabins that will be available to book for retreats and weekends away. Tucked away in the woods each hut will have its own private area with log burners, fire pits and facilities – views through the trees give a glimpse of the vineyard across the valley.

Providing valuable local employment in a rural area and with a focus on multiple income streams, Carvers Hill Estate is well positioned to cope with the vagaries of the English climate.

Representing you

Working in partnership with Vineyard magazine for a developing UK wine industry.

WineGB is the national association for the English and Welsh wine industry. WineGB represents, leads, and supports the sustainable growth of the Great British wine sector.

If you are interested in wine production in the UK find out more about WineGB and join us. Visit our website www.winegb.co.uk

WineGB strategy and three year programme

In November at the Vineyard & Winery Show, we launched our Strategy and three year programme covering 2025 to 2027. This follows our first Strategy Day held in September and an extensive consultation with opportunities for all members to offer their input, including extra sessions with the regions and working groups and feedback from over 160 members submitted through individual polling.

The Strategy identifies the main challenges our industry faces and provides a five-pillar model for addressing them.

The main objectives are:

◆ Manage the challenge of long-term consistency in a cool climate while weather patterns are increasingly variable.

◆ Ensure that the industry can secure and educate a workforce that tracks production.

◆ Sales track production.

◆ Ensure that quality continues to improve and develop materials to support trade/consumer understanding.

◆ Use proactive leadership to ensure that the reputation of the sector is enhanced to:

– Protect business

– Advance the industry

For 2025, we will work to develop a coordinated strategy in terms of sales and marketing, export, and wine tourism. We will focus our attention on the events and activity that matters most, and concentrate on improving our delivery. We also plan to undertake a brand refresh to improve our category-wide messaging and bring our visuals in line with our strategy and mission. We will expand our Industry Report so that it creates more insightful content for our members to enable them to better understand different routes to market. We will also be focusing on building our annual campaign English Wine Week as well as our annual Trade and Press Tasting, where we will develop greater trade awareness. This work will ultimately ensure that our members are well supported and benefit from a suite of guidance materials and resources to assist every element of their business.

The full Strategy can be found here: https://winegb.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Cultivating-success-WineGB-2025-onwards-members-section-1-1.pdf

Photo: Andrew Hasson

Frost and vine mapping survey

There is still time to take part in the frost and vineyard mapping survey and help two Government-funded projects create positive contributions towards our industry. With funding from Innovate UK, the ‘Vineyard Frost Forecasting’ and VISTA (Vineyard Information System for Technology and Automation) projects have launched a joint survey to support their work. WineGB is a partner in the Vineyard Frost Forecasting project and is actively supporting the distribution of both surveys.

About the projects

The Vineyard Frost Forecasting project will help to create highly localised, site-specific and varietyspecific frost risk forecasts, enabling vineyard managers to make informed, targeted and sustainable decisions when responding to frost events. Meanwhile, the VISTA project will build systems to meet the current and future data needs of both growers and technology companies while preparing the industry for increased automation. This will support UK vineyard efficiency, profitability and sustainability, while providing an open standard that can be adopted in other parts of the world.

To take part, please visit: https://groundedresearch.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bDGC4K5e1ODMd5s

DATES FOR THE DIARY

WineGB Harvest Report 2024 launch

6-8 January 2025

Plumpton College –Principles of Sparkling Wine

14 January 2025

Plumpton College – Identifying and Managing Wine Fault

19-20 January 2025

Cool Climate Wine Summit, Copenhagen, Denmark

27-31 January 2025

Plumpton College – Principles of Vinegrowing – Intensive

Exploring wider sources of funding

With recent government announcements and increasingly volatile weather making vineyard management ever-more challenging, the viticulture sector, can often feel like the forgotten pieces of the puzzle when it comes to grant funding, writes Beth Speakman of Ceres Rural.

Many aspects of agri-environmental funding and stewardship are open to all BPS eligible businesses, including horticultural. The government has now confirmed that 2025 will be the final year of BPS, with payments capped at a maximum of £7,250 per business, and it is crucial that viticulture businesses explore wider sources of funding to help de-risk incomes.

Sustainable Farming Incentive

The scheme is designed to be more flexible, allowing a combination of actions across holdings. There are a handful of strong options which can be layered to accrue worthwhile revenue.

One such option is CIPM2: Flower-rich Grass Margins, which pays £798 per ha. This can be established between or around vines, to promote pollinators and reduce frost risk without drastically increasing organic matter, all whilst providing economic benefit. It can be established either in the spring or late summer and also cut in the spring and late summer to maintain it.

An alternative for between the vines would be deep-rooting cover crops to take up nitrogen, such as radishes with options: CSAM2, SOH2 or SOH3, depending on whether the cover crop is winter, spring or

summer sown. For organic vineyards, OFM5:

Organic Land Management option offers £707/ha for businesses that are certified as organic, and rewards businesses for their sustainable organic management practices.

For holdings with areas of permanent grassland, £151/ha is available for managing it with very low inputs (CLIG3) or higher payments for species rich grassland £646/ ha (GRH6) – this requires endorsement from Natural England. Alternatively, £590/ha is available for Grass Field Blocks, (CAHL3), for squaring-up parcels and utilising grass edges.

SFI also rewards businesses that are integrating tech into vineyards, with the precision farming options available, such as variable rate application of nutrients (PRF1) and camera or remote sensor guided herbicide spraying (PRF2).

Lastly but most straightforwardly, there are payments for producing plans for soil, pest, and nutrient management (CSAM1, CIPM1 and CNUM1), granting funding for actions many businesses are already undertaking.

Capital Grant Schemes

A recent DEFRA announcement stated that presently, the application window for Capital Grants is closed. However, it is expected to re-open in early 2025.

In 2024, horticultural businesses were able to apply for a range of options, including, but not limited to, those featured below. A full list of previously offered items is available via: www.gov.uk/countryside-stewardship-grants.

DEFRA’s Future Farm Resilience Fund (FFRF)

Contrary to what the name implies, the fund is open to all BPS claiming businesses, and is designed to facilitate free professional advice for rural businesses, whether it covers SFI, agri-environmental schemes, carbon auditing, planning queries or biodiversity net gain, or all of the above.

Through DEFRA’s FFRF, Ceres Rural can offer free business consultancy to help you navigate through this period of change in the industry. Your business must have a Single Business Identifier (SBI) number to be eligible for the funding, and you must have claimed BPS.

The scheme ends in February 2025, so if you would like to claim your free advice, please contact: Beth – beth.speakman@ceresrural.co.uk) Louise – louise.penn@ceresrural.co.uk or call: 01223 679679 to book a meeting

Beth Speakman Louise Penn

HARVEST YOUR GRAPES

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Reliable solutions for mulching vine prunings

For vineyard managers, dealing with vine prunings has long been a seasonal challenge. Traditional methods, such as removing or burning the cuttings, come with significant drawbacks. Burning prunings, while occasionally offering warmth on cold days, is unsustainable and contributes to significant air pollution, especially in larger vineyards. The labourintensive task of clearing rows entirely also consumes valuable time and manpower. Thankfully, there is a more practical and environmentally friendly alternative. Pulverising prunings directly in the vineyard rows is not only a time-saving solution but also an environmentally responsible approach. By shredding vine debris into fine mulch, you can reduce waste and enhance soil fertility, creating a natural cycle that supports healthy, productive vines year after year.

From a disease management perspective, pulverising prunings offers another advantage. When wood is shredded into small, easily decomposed pieces and introduced to healthy soil, it breaks down quickly, minimising the risk of contributing to infections in future seasons.

This article explores four exceptional pulverisers designed to meet the varied needs of UK vine growers. Whether prioritising precision, soil enrichment, or multi-functional versatility, there is a machine to suit every grower’s unique requirements.

For precision and thoroughness: The BG2

When it comes to clearing vineyard rows with precision and efficiency, the Perfect van Wamel BG2 pulveriser stands out as the ideal choice for growers who want to ensure no prunings are left behind. Designed with a robust build and equipped with a brush sweep attachment, this machine is perfect for tidying vineyard floors without missing a single cane.

The BG2’s ability to collect and pulverise even the smallest cuttings reduces the risk of disease while leaving behind finely shredded mulch that decomposes quickly and enriches the soil. Built to clear dense rows efficiently and handle challenging terrains with ease, the BG2 ensures reliable performance season after season.

For soil enrichment: The KK

For growers looking to turn vine prunings into a valuable resource for soil health, the Perfect van Wamel KK mower offers an excellent solution. Designed not only to shred prunings with efficiency, this pulveriser, when fitted with optional side chutes, can also distribute the resulting mulch precisely at the base of the vines, ensuring it provides maximum benefit where it’s needed most. Using the Perfect KK immediately after pruning season allows you to clear your vineyard floor while enriching the soil with this natural fertiliser. In addition to improving soil health, the finely shredded mulch helps to suppress and slow weed establishment during the early stages of the growing season, setting vines up for success.

For versatility: The Variochop

For growers seeking a versatile solution that works well beyond pruning season, the Perfect van Wamel Variochop offers an outstanding combination of functionality and adaptability. Not only does it handle vine prunings with ease, but when fitted with Combi flails, it also doubles as an efficient mower for maintaining grass alleyways during the summer months, making it a valuable, year-round asset.

What truly sets the Variochop apart is its robust design and ability to tackle dense vegetation without compromising on

precision. The Variochop’s Combi flails ensure precise shredding, even in dense rows, while its adaptability reduces the need for multiple pieces of equipment.

For maximum flexibility: The Braun Alpha

For vineyard managers looking to maximise the potential of their machinery, the Braun Alpha pulveriser is an exceptional choice, renowned for its ability to handle multiple tasks with ease.

During pruning season, it effortlessly shreds vine cuttings into fine mulch, enriching the soil and keeping vineyard rows clear. In the summer months, it transitions seamlessly to mowing grass alleys, ensuring that vineyard floors remain neat and well-maintained. What truly sets the Braun Alpha apart is its compatibility with mechanical weeding tools, such as finger weeders and strimmer heads. This flexibility makes it a reliable partner for growers managing diverse vineyard tasks. With NP Seymour’s range of innovative pulverisers, managing your vine prunings becomes easier, more efficient, and more sustainable.

For more information about the full range of pulverisers at NP Seymour, contact the sales team on 01580 712200 or email sales@npseymour.co.uk

Frost fan with two heaters

The Ventigel company in Bordeaux has introduced a larger capacity anti frost tool.

The Ventigel company in Bordeaux has introduced a larger capacity anti frost tool to complement the standard vineyard unit so that a larger area can be covered with an even greater warming effect.

The fan has a slightly higher air flow than the standard unit but instead of only one heater it has two. The area covered is typically two hectares to three hectares.

It works on the principle that dry vegetation resists freezing longer than wet and its powerful fan is thus used first to blow across the vines reducing humidity and then it has the option of turning on the burners should the temperature fall away.

Practice has shown that turning on the fan during the day to dry at risk areas is beneficial and then using the heaters at night when very cold and freezing.

The electric fan has an 11Kw motor with an air flow rate of 60,000m³/hr and the two heaters each provide 110Kw of heat with diesel fuel tank capacity to last the night long. With its narrow dimensions and tractor hitch points it can easily be positioned in vine rows to cover the most at risk areas. The Ventigel has proven to be a simple, pragmatic solution allowing effective protection against frost.

EXCLUSIVE UK DEALER FOR PELLENC TOOLS

Crawfords Group –

Proudly supporting the future of viticulture and fruit farming.

The Pellenc tool range is now exclusively available from Crawfords Group! Renowned for their innovative design, exceptional performance, and professional quality, Pellenc tools are the ultimate choice for those seeking efficiency and reliability.

Crawfords is your exclusive destination for the full Pellenc tool lineup, including cutting-edge pruning equipment and more.

Contact our viticulture specialist Dan Turner for more information: 07596 866231