Last week due to an unprecedented growing season in the UK, we had to postpone an event in Edinburgh that was intended to be a little pre-harvest celebration of UK winemaking. As the date approached, most of the confirmed growers dropped out one-by-one as fruit raced to maturity at a breakneck speed across the country.
A process that should usually unfold over weeks has been compressed into days, leaving growers making decisions on the fly, shifting plans and calling for all hands on deck.
We had a chat with Sophie Evans and Jules Philips (Ham Street) who farm within a few miles of one another in Kent to get their perspective on what's happened this year.
At Ham Street, Jules described fruit that’s “five weeks ahead of where it was last year, and about three weeks ahead of the last hot summer we had, 2022.” In the space of eleven days they saw sugar jump three brix (usually a three-week process for them). Acids are dropping, and the canopy has surged with energy. “It’s unprecedented for English wine,” he said. “We’ve had the sunniest year ever in the UK… not blistering heat, but this consistent average temperature from April through July, plus just enough rain at the right time. Everything came much earlier in terms of veraison, so the ripening was happening through a period of longer, hotter days, and you get this exponential ripening curve.”
That rapid pace, however, brings its own pressures. Sophie remarked that even in the last few wet years, September has been fairly dry, but this year we seem to have plummeted straight into Autumn on September 1st. Storms and heavy rainfall have already caused some burst berries, and Jules worries about botrytis setting in before they can get everything safely into the cellar. “It’s so early, and super stressful,” he admitted, “but the quality is in an amazing place currently, if we can get it in. We just need the pickers, as everyone we had organised was for further along in the season."
Sophie has been feeling the same acceleration. “I measured the Bacchus three times the other day and just couldn’t believe the readings.” Usually, veraison crawls along for six weeks in England, but this year it wrapped in four. What would be right on schedule in Europe, has been a huge surprise here. “I already found it really difficult to choose picking dates this year. It took me two weeks to decide, get things locked in and then within two days it all changed so drastically.”
The pressure of logistics - getting people to the site, making sure there's food for everyone - weighs heavy. There's a lot to do at short notice. "The thing is, what we've come to expect of the UK ripening window is this low & slow process, as we don't usually have that same accumulation of warmth they have in Europe. But this year we've had that, and with so much vigour - honestly, things went from 0-100 in the space of two weeks - I've never seen it here, or anywhere else I've worked in my life."
For Sophie, Bacchus will be picked this Thursday (terrible storms stopped her from starting on 15th September) Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir soon after, with Chardonnay following in October- even those plans feel fragile against the weather’s turns.
The good news is that after a couple of tricky vintages in her first site, Sophie's new additional parcel (planted to Bacchus, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on chalky, free-draining soils, surrounded by forest) is showing its strength this year, offering fruit with a precision that contrasts with the heavier soils of her first site. “I love the new site, it's actually shown me how difficult the original site is, it can be so mad trying to keep that under control."
"Ultimately, fruit is looking good and healthy, things are kind of perfect right now," she reflected, "and honestly, more years like this would be better- but it's the lack of consistency that's the issue. We can't plan for this. It's a struggle to really plan at all."
But in a season where the acceleration of everything has really put the pressure on, both Jules and Sophie are reminded that farming the way they do is as much about trust as control. As Sophie put it, “at the end of the day, what will be will be- that’s what’s nice about this way of working. You can’t hold yourself to too many expectations.”
Both Sophie and Ham Street are in urgent need of pickers in the next few days (and weeks) if you're keen and able to help, please drop us an email and we can put you in touch.
