Although it is still too early to gauge the quality of the 2015 harvest in England, it is interesting to get a status report from a prominent estate, in our case the Gusbourne Estate which owns vineyards both in Kent and in Sussex, which is a major asset. Andrew Weeber answers our questions:
Can you give us an indication of how the vines are doing thus far?
Andrew Weeber: “Flowering began on the 27th of June this year and was pretty much completed by the middle of July. Since the end of flowering we have been utilising our Collard Leaf Blowing machine to remove some leaf from around the fruit zone. This machine also has the benefit of clearing some of the flower debris from the newly formed bunch. As of today we are probably 1 – 2 weeks away from bunch closure. All wire working is now complete, so our attentions turn towards canopy management. Other operations that are continuing are trimming of the established vines, trellis installation in the new plantings, shoot selection and weeding in the grow tubes of the new plantings. There is a little bit of leaf removal being carried out by hand. This is being restricted to the areas that we wish to divert fruit to still wine production. By doing this by hand we can treat each vine as an individual and take off as much or as little as possible. The leaf removal will also make fruit thinning much easier as we will be able to view and assess the fruit zone far easier.”
How are young vines looking so far in Kent and in Sussex?
Andrew Weeber: “In Sussex, 2013 vines are looking very well. They have had a great start in life, being planted into a soil with plenty of stone and aeration. The soils in Sussex are a topsoil of flint clay loam over chalk. The stoney topsoil prevents the soil from compacting which means that the vines roots have been able to exploit plenty of the soil. They have grown strong and established very well. These vines will have their first harvest this year. It is looking very promising. An existing vintage approaches where we will eventually start to see some expression of the different sites and soils. In Kent, 2014 plantings are romping away. In the first year in the ground they had a great start and established their roots in our deep clay soils. This year being their second year has shown that they have embarked on a great season. They are looking very healthy and producing some well balanced shoot growth which will give our team plenty of good wood to choose from during pruning. Regarding our 2015 vines in Kent, the establishment of this 20ha has gone very well, with few vine losses. Considering we have had very little rain the vines are all showing their leaf tips out of the tops of the vine guards. On one hand I would like lots of rain to give them a good growth spurt before the end of the season but on the other hand I would like it to stay dry from a disease point of view for the more established vines that will be harvested this year.”
So for the moment are there any similarities with other recent vintages?
Andrew Weeber: “Closest similarity vintage wise would be with 2009, although we don’t have the same high yield as that year. Weather this year has been fantastic for the established vineyards with plenty of warmth and good sunlight levels. The bunches are developing well and evenly on both sites.”
If everything goes well, when might the harvest start?
Andrew Weeber: “Even though the Sussex and Kent Sites are 90 miles apart it looks as though the harvests will coincide, with Kent maybe having the edge by a couple of days. Historically our harvest has happened about 106 days after the first flowers caps off were seen in the vineyard. For this year the provisional harvest date is 7th October.”
