Getting ready for harvest

This year has been a tale of near misses. Pruning and tying down all went smoothly in the wintery months of February and March but Spring never seemed to arrive. The cold weather lasted well into April, holding the vines back and slowing the development of the new buds for the year. With rain coming in torrents toward the end of April and start of May, it seemed an unfortunate time to have a vineyard in North Yorkshire! In previous years, the vines usually burst their buds in mid-late April however this year, at the same time, the buds were only just starting to arrive. Late frosts loomed and the ground was so wet that we couldn’t get the tractor up and down the rows to spray the vines which is our usual method of frost protection. So, we had to improvise and together with the help of volunteers Mark and Sarah Bailey we spent two sleepless nights in early May, keeping over twenty fires burning in the vineyard. Trying to inch up the temperature a degree or two, to protect our precious new buds. Thankfully, we avoided any damage, maybe in part because the vines were so far from the stage they would usually be, their natural frost defences were still in place.

Thanks to everyone that lent us firepits, chimeneas and BBQs to keep the vineyard warm!

At this stage the vines were a month behind previous years and whilst this protected us from the frost it posed a different problem. In the UK and particularly in North Yorkshire, the longer the vines have in the sun, the better. We are never guaranteed a good summer.  Therefore, we were concerned that the buds would burst too late, flowering would happen too late, the fruit would set too late and ultimately the grapes would not have enough time to ripen before the summer months came to an end.

In the end Spring never did arrive, we went straight into Summer just as the vines were tentatively breaking out of their buds and sending new shoots upwards. Two weeks of full-blooded sunshine saw the vineyard burst into life. Amazing growth spurts happened all across the vineyard and almost overnight flowers were beginning to emerge on the vines. Flowering is an incredibly important stage in a vine’s yearly schedule, pollenated flowers become bunches of grapes, while unpollinated flowers remain just flowers. The vines are all wind pollenated, so a light breeze and dry days are all we need, tiny caps on the end of the flowers get gently blown off and then they’re ready to be pollenated. Just as it seemed that the flowers were ready to begin, the weather changed. Sun seemed a distant memory and the wind was still. For the next week, it rained incessantly. Rain can be a big problem, it can stick the caps to the end of the flowers and prevent pollination, which means no grapes. Fortunately, the sun returned and the breeze with it, flowering continued full throttle. Around this time in the year the vines start to grow relentlessly, upwards of 2 inches a day, the sun and rain thrust them into overdrive. The welcome return of the sunshine became a heat wave. As we sit here at the back end of that heat wave, we are somewhat awestruck that our vines have come through the challenges of the year unscathed. We now need to turn all our energy towards harvest and there’s lots to do to get the vines ready. At the rate the vines are growing stripping the leaves and tucking in the canopy to allow for good airflow through the canopy is a mammoth task, but with the help of our brilliant team of volunteers we should just about manage.

In the meantime, fingers crossed for 2021 harvest!