The wettest winter for one hundred years knocking 2014 off its wettest-ever perch kicked off a growing season that has been far from typical. This has been a year for experienced growers to navigate thoughtfully. From wet to dry in the blink of an eye March brought sunny days, very little cloud cover and slightly […]
April saw average temperatures give way to much warmer conditions in the second half of the month. May was mildly warmer than average. A cool early June saw a warmer than average end. July saw above average temperatures with a heat spike on the continent spreading its warmth into the southern UK with a very […]
Optimists are saying that 2018 sets the benchmark for wonderful summers to come; the more cynical are already referring to it as a once in a lifetime result. Either way this year the grapes are breaking records with best-ever sugar levels and a cornucopia of quality and quantity. The gods have been smiling. For those […]
2018 saw the completion of our final planting, with 7,250 Chardonnay & Pinot Meunier vines planted in our Great Gale field. Great Gale got its name from the storm of 1703 which cleared the trees that once stood on this spot. The German & Polish planting team arrived 4 days early, throwing us into some […]
The English Sparkling growing season typically runs from the beginning of April to the end of October, with harvest in the East Sussex High Weald generally in early to mid October. But 2017 proved to be a season of extremes. We started with drought. March was unusually warm. Bud burst came forth 2-3 weeks early. […]
2016 was an atypical, but ultimately superb quality, vintage & growing season. A rain-soaked winter gave way to a cool but dry late spring. Late frosts were a menace that we managed to dodge. Many producers were forced to race around their vineyards at night lighting bougies & using tractor hauled hot air machines to […]
Bud burst came slightly early in the middle of April. A slightly cooler May slowed things back to about average. The fruit load looked promising. A relatively dry period ensued, with the formation of good bunches & the additional warmth spurred growth. However, fruit set although optically even occurred over a longer period than usual, […]
The growing season commenced after the wettest winters for over a century, with rainfall at +265% of the long-term average; it’s an understatement to say it rained. Fields were super-saturated, but the soils stayed warm. No snow fell, there were few frosts. Just wet, wet, wet. March and April were warmer than average, drier and […]
It seems odd to be sitting inside, squinting at a screen on the “hottest day of the year so far” (June 13th, 26° C – Humidity high – very stickilly high) and getting all nostalgic as we search through ten years of photographs of our Mayfield vineyards for this website. And it’s not just me […]
We started the year shivering and coated in mud as chilly winds and heavy rains blew over us. The season got off to a miserable start: cold, wet and disheartening with vine growth lagging by a month as we reached May. But, mercifully, May was magical: warm and dry with stable high pressure and that’s […]