Challenging weather related spring and summer lead into an amazingly dry and mild autumn, meaning grapes got fully ripe (often a struggle in this cold climate). With that in mind there should be some very good wines coming out of English wineries this vintage, if not a great volume.

 

First pick from here was Ortega on 27^th September, last was Hillside Chardonnay on 25^th October.

 

We picked more or less consistently after that, the decisions being in which order to pick the different blocks and varieties. Everyone kept expecting the weather to turn to rubbish, but the sunshine just kept coming. I got called “jammy” more than once for my first UK vintage.