A First (Surprise) Harvest

This October we had our first harvest, and it took us by surprise. We were not due to pick any fruit until 2025, but our careful establishment and care of the vines has resulted in a small but healthy crop. From this crop we will be able to produce a delicious sparkling wine, which will be released from 2026 at the earliest.

A Challenging Year

While we enjoyed our first unexpected crop which was clean and high quality, the same cannot be said for many UK vineyards, who have experienced the worst year since 2016. This is mainly due to challenging weather this year: frost in the spring, poor flowering, then unrelenting rain and humidity resulting in sky-high disease pressure.

We managed to avoid much of this thanks to careful management of the young vines, however we could not risk being caught out at the very end of the season, just as the grapes were reaching their optimal ripeness. As a result we had to harvest with a days notice, so unpredictable was the season. This is nothing unusual for us as farmers- the same applies for our cereals crops, especially with todays more extreme weather systems.

To avoid jeopardising the crop, we had to act quickly in order to bring the grapes in. We had hoped to offer a volunteer picking day this year, however, the weather had simply not permitted us time to organise one. We appreciate this may have been disappointing for some, but as farmers we are very used to being driven by conditions outside of our control- nature must decide.

Crucially, we have a healthy, clean and substantial crop, especially given the dreadful year we have faced as growers. The grapes will go into various sparkling blends which we look forward to releasing from 2026/27 onwards.

As the vines grow, and so the yields, there will be more time required for picking, and therefore greater chance to offer volunteer picking days. This year we have had to react to the situation rather than proactively organise, which has been a real test as new growers!

The Harvest Day

Prior to the harvest day we spend a lot of time sampling the fruit. The sweetness of the fruit, indicated in brix, tells us when the fruit is ripe enough and also what kind of wine we might like to produce. Other tests for pH and Titratable Acid also play a vital role in designating harvest days. We also need a dry day as water droplets on the grapes can cause dilution of the fruit when it is pressed. If we are lucky and the stars align, we are able to pick, although with our British weather (especially this year) finding a dry picking day has been a real challenge.

• 6am : prepare the picking equipment
  • Giant picking bins are already laid out, but we also need gloves, snips, buckets, tractors and trailers, and of course, tea and cake!
• 7am : start picking
  • Grapes are picked into buckets which are decanted into larger picking bins
• Throughout the Day
  • We pick across various clones throughout the day, ensuring bins are correctly labelled and quality of the picked fruit is high. Any under-ripe or dirty/diseased fruit is dropped to the floor. Fortunately, we dropped very little this year due to careful management of the vines.
• 3pm : picking ends and the grapes are loaded for delivery to the winery. They will be pressed within a matter of hours of being picked.

This year we had 3 harvest days in quick succession in order to bring the crop in at its cleanest and healthiest. In such a short space of time, it is hard to believe that the Lokkelebery pickers managed to harvest 9 tonnes of fruit by hand. In future we may be harvesting for 10 days or more depending on the yields. We look forward to what next year may have in store!

The Wine

Another implication of the cold conditions was on the wine we could make from this years harvest. Due to cool conditions throughout the summer, especially in September, nature dictated that the 2024 vintage be sparkling. Such is working with the environment around us- we have to listen to it if we are to make a quality product without pushing the vines to produce products they simply cannot given the meteorological circumstances.

The cooler conditions of September meant that in the crucial final weeks of ripening, the sun didn’t shine or provide enough heat to create sugars in the grapes. While this would mean an acidic, thin still wine, it works perfectly for sparkling due to the dosage process (which involves boosting sugar levels) during the wine-making.

While a sparkling year means a longer wait for the bottle, at Lokkelebery we believe it is vital to listen to our environment in the process of wine making. We will be able to taste the true flavour of the 2024 vintage and not a forced blend which does not reflect the strengths of this years crop.

The sparkling range produced from the 2024 harvest may be available from 2026 at the earliest, depending on the wine styles that most suit the fruit.

Photo credits: Lokkelebery Vineyard & Nikki Lewis Photography