Over the next few months we will be publishing diaries and journals featuring the various routines, practices and thoughts of the U.K. growers and producers that we work with.
Tim Wildmanās project is called Lost in a Field and involves re-discovering lost and abandoned vineyards which were planted to English grapes (crossings and hybrids) in the ’70s, ’80s and onwards. This year he released his first vintage, a multi-blend bubbly called Frolic Pet-Nat from various varieties, and some ten vineyards scattered across the country. Here he writes about the extreme weather in 2022 and the problem with sourcing bottles for his wine:
‘On the day the Queen died, the heavens opened and it didnāt stop raining for two days.
A bit of rain was welcome after the heat and drought of the summer, but nobody wants to see a wet September. Cell division in the berry has already taken place which means dilution will be less of a problem, the main risk at this time of year will be berry split followed by botrytis.
Growers are nervously looking towards the heavens and mumbling prayers to the weather gods.
Despite the record breaking heat this summer, yields are looking lower than that other recent sunny vintage of 2018, which had just the right amount of rain throughout the growing season to keep both quality and quantity high. Looking at current ripeness levels, we anticipate picking at a similar time to last year, in early October, which was a much cooler season.
Growers are nervously looking towards the heavens and mumbling prayers to the weather gods.
One explanation for this is that the vines actually shut down during the intense heat spikes in July and August and ripening was delayed.
I was in one of our old vine heritage variety vineyards in Herefordshire, planted in 1972, a couple of weeks ago walking through the Madeleine Angevine block with John, the vineyard manager.Ā He pointed to a bunch on the outside of the canopy where the shoulder contained just tiny, shrivelled, bullet-like berries and asked if I knew what disease had caused this effect.
Having made pĆ©t-nat in South Australia for the last ten years (Astro Bunny) I knew exactly what I was looking at. āThatās not disease mate, thatās sunburnā. Heād never seen it in the UK.
As we stand at the beginning of September, the story of the 2022 vintage is far from being written.
Weāre not immune to global factors. My glass suppliers in Bristol told me months ago that they were concerned that the German foundries might be turned off due to the uncertainty of supply of Russian gas. I bit the bullet, and not only paid in full for my bottles for this vintage, but made sure they were shipped to the UK and put into storage, all of which happened before Iād released even a single bottle of my inaugural 2021 vintage of Lost in a Field āFrolicā pĆ©t-nat. The harsh reality of cash flow in the wine business.
Up until this weekās downpour. 2022 was looking to be good-to-high quality, possibly outstanding for red table wine, not unlike 2018 but with smaller berries due to dehydration and lighter bunch weights leading to lower yields. Iām hearing reports of it being a tough year for young vineyards, struggling to establish themselves with a lack of water, but as the majority of the heritage varieties we use are from vineyards planted in the 70s, 80s and 90s, they seem to have coped well – so far. As we stand at the beginning of September, the story of the 2022 vintage is far from being written.