It's Grape up North

for viticulturists in Great Britain ™ VINEYAROCTOBERD 2019 IN CONVERSATION MATTHEW JUKES AGRONOMY James Townsend, WINE REVIEW Crop protection Dunesford Vineyard, Catnip to ‘homeless’ specialists Hutchinsons Yorkshire grape growers support UK vineyards IT’S GRAPE UP NORTH Demystifying Yorkshire in our two part series VINEYARD• Farm and Estate Management • Rent Reviews • Planning ApplicationsCONSULTANTS • Basic Payment Scheme • Countryside Stewardship • Grant Applications Call us on 01892 770339 or email info@c-l-m.co.uk www.c-l-m.co.uk for viticulturists in Great Britain ™ VINEYARD EDITORIAL Editor NEWS Victoria Rose editor@vineyardmagazine.co.uk 6 Harvest 2019 is a more typical year ADVERTISEMENTS Advertisement director 7 Yield survey needs you Jamie McGrorty 01303 233883 9 English Merlot Calls may be monitored or recorded Cabernet Sauvignon jamie@vineyardmagazine.co.uk blend draws attention Accounts & administration 11 MPs call for relief Michala Nason scheme to benefit admin@vineyardmagazine.co.uk smaller vineyards DESIGN Studio manager Jo Legg Designer REGULARS James Pitchford studio@vineyardmagazine.co.uk 28 Matthew Jukes’ Photographer Martin Apps wine review www.countrywidephotographic.co.uk Catnip to ‘homeless’ grape growers. PUBLISHER CO in wine Vineyard Magazine Ltd 30 2 Measuring carbon dioxide Clive Rabson Director can be tricky but important to monitor during the winemaking GENERAL ENQUIRIES and bottling process. AND SUBSCRIPTIONS Tel: 01303 233880 40 The vine post Calls may be monitored or recorded How to design a vineyard. admin@vineyardmagazine.co.uk 46 Representing you WEBSITE New monthly column from Wines of Great Britain. www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk 49 Control troublesome Established 2018 weeds All rights reserved © 2018-2019 Arable cultivation technology ISSN: 2516-1660 (Print) offers weed control option vines. ISSN: 2516-1679 (Online) Produced by: Vineyard Magazine Ltd PO Box 229, HYTHE, CT21 4WY www.vineyardmagazine.co.uk Vineyard is a trade mark of Front cover image: Vineyard Magazine Ltd Divico grapes Photo: NIAB EMR Printed in England The publisher does not accept any responsibility for the content of advertisements or contributed editorial in this magazine. Opinions expressed editorially are not necessarily those of the editor letters@vineyardmagazine.co.uk or publisher and no responsibility is accepted for loss, damage or injury incurred as a result of opinions, advice or comment. No part of this twitter @VineyardMagGB publication may be reproduced without written permission. facebook VineyardMagGB CONTENTS Features In conversation… James Townsend at Dunesforde Vineyard in Upper Dunsforth, York, talks to Vineyard about what it’s like to grow 18 grapes up North. Editor’s visit Demystifying northern 20 viticultural challenges. Agronomy The crop protection specialists proudly supporting vineyards 32 across the entire UK. Rain or shine? The expectation of delivering a crop in perfect condition can set one’s nerves 42 jangling. Rose ria to ic V From the editor The Vineyard Sup North In the car driving up to Yorkshire from Kent there was ample time to think about all the possible responses to my question: what is the specialists biggest challenge of growing grapes so far north? Working with growers for 80 years, Hutchinsons remains a family I thought about Alastair Nesbitt’s 2018 report ‘A suitability model for business offering specialist Horticultural agronomy advice and viticulture in England and Wales’ and its conclusions that “many existing inputs, together with a comprehensive range of packaging vineyards are sub optimally located”. This report applies to all vineyards materials. We also offer a range of equipment for vine pruning & training, across all regions but as my brain ran through the site selection checklist including wirework, ties, clips, scissors and pruners. Our professionalism (elevation, aspect, soil type, risk of frost, and climate), stereotypical ‘northern’ is coupled with a total commitment to customer service. weather conditions undoubtedly stood out. With a highly experienced Horticultural agronomist team and dedicated Typically, it was raining the day of our visit, but it had rained in Kent and the Produce Packaging division covering the whole country, we have all the wider South East all week too. When sending over his quarterly column (see advice you want and all the inputs you need, just a phone call away. page 42) Matt Strugnell, vineyard manager at Ridgeview, Sussex, said it was difficult not to sound like he was just moaning about the weather. The end It’s our people that to the 2019 season has certainly been a challenge whether you are in Aike, Yorkshire or Brighton, Sussex. make the difference With Botrytis and other nasties taking advantage of this interspersed mix of wet and warm spells, none has been more subject to producers’ worry, TURRIFF panic and dismay over the risk of losing an entire crop than the nation’s FORFAR SCOTLAND agronomists. The skilled viticultural specialists at crop protection firm Forfar: Hutchinsons (see page 32) have been busy guiding growers through these (01307) 460944 turbulent times. Perhaps the answer lies not in praying for every year to be like 2018, MONKTON ALNWICK PRODUCE PACKAGING but in finding varieties which are more suited to our marginal cool climate. Spalding: (01775) 710066 CARLISLE Despite being the second most planted varietal, data from the 2018 ICCWS- WineGB yield survey suggest that last year Pinot noir’s performance was WETHERBY EAST ANGLIA comparatively poor. As there are currently only figures from the extraordinary Wisbech: SELBY (01945) 461177 2018 season, to better improve our understanding of viticulture in the UK, the WEST MIDLANDS ORMSKIRK yield survey is being run again this year (see page 7). /SOUTH WEST DORRINGTON Ledbury: (01531) 631131 SPALDING SOUTH EAST If the industry does decide it needs a more commercially viable red wine EAST WISBECH Canterbury: SHREWSBURY HARLING grape, scientists at NIAB-EMR believe they have found the answer. Grown in SOHAM (01227) 830064 NEEDHAM the UK’s only research vineyard, Divico, which features on this month’s front LEDBURY BANBURY MARKET cover, will soon be pressed and fermented in the newly opened research DEVIZES CANTERBURY MARDEN PRODUCE PACKAGING winery (see page 12). Marden: (01622) 831423 By the time I arrived in Yorkshire, I had thought I had considered every TRURO possible obstacle facing northern viticulturists. Yet, the answer I got from Ian Sargent, owner of Laurel Vines, (see page 20) came as a surprise. Growers nationwide do not enjoy equal access to education; a vital requirement for anyone hoping to protect vines when the rainy days do arrive. H L Hutchinson Ltd • Weasenham Lane Wisbech • Cambridgeshire PE13 2RN Tel: 01945 461177 f: 01945 474837 • e: information@hlhltd.co.uk www.hlhltd.co.uk Send your thoughts and comments producepackaging@hlhltd.co.uk www.producepackaging.co.uk by post to FREEPOST VINEYARD or email 4 letters@vineyardmagazine.co.uk OCTOBER 2019 | VINEYARD 15079HUT~ViticultureMagazine_advert(270x93)2019.indd 1 02/01/2019 11:10 WWW.VINE-WORKS.COM The UK’s leading Vineyard Management & Consultancy company. Contact us to discuss all your vineyard needs. Establishment - Consultancy - Technical Scouting sales@vine-works.com 01273 891777 • Timely site visits from at key phenological stages. • Season long data collection and analysis based on regular, structured representative sampling. • Specifying, planning and booking all labour and tractor operations. • Management of your integrated pest management and nutritional program. • Yield and harvest management. Contact us about our Technical Scouting & Vineyard Management Protocol NEWS ◆ 2010’s 1086 for 2019 Sparkling wine producer Nyetimber has released Harvest 2019 is a the 2010 vintage of its Prestige Cuvee, ‘1086’. A blend of 45% more typical year Chardonnay, 44% Pinot noir and 11% Pinot The 2019 Nyetimber harvest began on Saturday 5 small, experience of fruit from six hectares of our meunier, the 2010 October. The largest English sparkling producer and Kent vineyards, which will give us an insight into the vintage conditions saw the only producer to own vineyards across three characteristics we can expect from this site.” slightly lower than average counties of southern England, Nyetimber’s grapes Grapes from this year’s harvest will be processed at temperatures in the early will be picked from 214 hectares of estate-owned Nyetimber’s state-of-the-art pressing centre located at growing stages, but much vineyards in West Sussex, Hampshire and, for the first the heart of its historic West Sussex estate. This facility drier weather conditions time, Kent. uses the latest technology as well as traditional gravity too. Flowering proceeded Following the earliest recorded start to harvest in 2018, flow to ensure the least mechanical intervention possible in excellent conditions in this year sees a return to more traditional timing of early and ensures that both the grapes and juice destined late June and early July, October and heralds the start of three weeks intense for Nyetimber wines are treated in the gentlest way, with hot and dry weather activity at the Nyetimber estate. Chardonnay, Pinot noir maintaining the highest level of quality. producing a large, even and Pinot meunier grapes will be hand-picked across “The growing conditions this year started with touches crop. Despite some cool eight vineyards by 300 skilled workers, representing the of spring frost, although we were largely unaffected,

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