It's beginning to look a lot like... harvest!
Harvest is almost here and 2026 looks like it will be another record breaking year at Greyfriars as the earliest harvest ever beating last year by more than a week! Finally, the seemingly eternal drought broke and the temperature has now dropped to more normal levels. Apparently, it was 62 consecutive days without rain in the Surrey Hills, which felt a lot longer and although our mature vines which evolved in Mediterranean conditions have thrived, the poor vineyard team have had a very tough growing season. As we write this in early September, the vines are healthy and the grapes are ripening apace. Over the last few weeks, the tiny green bullets have softened, changed colour and started swelling. On route to harvest, three things happen; the grapes accumulate sugar and become plump and sweet, the acidity drops and the flavours which define each particular grape variety develop. The key to producing a great wine is to harvest when all three elements are in balance for the particular style of wine you are looking to make. Over the last few weeks, we have been taking samples to measure sugar and acidity levels, so we can scientifically track each of our 21 plots’ progress, but of course the ultimate proof is the taste test!
While we are now on the final straight, it’s far from home and dry. After 15 harvests at Greyfriars, we have learnt that each vintage poses its own individual challenges and it’s usually a white-knuckle ride until the last grape is picked, pressed and safely in the tank! The risk of mildew is behind us and the two main risks to the crop now are Botrytis and physical pests (including wasps, fruit fly and birds). As the fruit ripens and becomes sweeter, particularly the red fruit, it becomes more and more attractive to wasps and the dreaded spotted wing fruit fly.
We have a strict policy of not using insecticides, so instead we have developed our own insect deterrent by converting hundreds of supermarket plastic lemonade bottles into home-made wasp and fly traps which we place at the end of the rows of vines. The bottles are filled with lemonade with added sugar and red food colouring to make them irresistible to the pesky wasps and flies. We check the traps regularly and the number of insects caught in the traps gives us an indication of the severity of any problem.Fruit fly is a particular problem in hot growing seasons like 2025 and 2026 when the grapes reach a level of ripeness while the weather is still warm enough for them to be active (in cooler years they tend not to be a problem).
In addition, we are hard at work behind the scene finalising the logistics for harvest which includes servicing critical equipment, cleaning the winery and making sure everything is in the right place at the right time. We have now set harvest dates with a high degree of certainty. As you will be aware, we are planning three harvest volunteer picking days, of which the first two will be on Saturday 19th September and Saturday 26th September. Thank you everybody has signed up and we still have a few places left for the 26th and we can now announce the third and final volunteer day on Sunday 27th September when we will be picking our late harvest Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay for our still wines at our main Greyfriars site. A separate e-mail and sign up will be following very shortly.
In the meantime, we are still open to visitors and tours and tastings are ongoing through this weekend (restarting in October after harvest). The vineyard looks beautiful (if a little brown) and we have some food trucks and if not we are delighted for you to bring a picnic. Although it feels cool, temperatures are absolutely ideal for visiting.As always thanks for your support and look forward to seeing you at the vineyard or at one of our volunteer picking days.
Mike and Hilary