End of the harvest

As the estate basks in the early morning autumn sunshine our dedicated vineyard and winery team pick the final few grapes of the harvest.

It’s been a season full of challenges, often dictated by mother nature. But through a late spring frost, inclement summer and reduced daylight we have been able to harvest an abundance of high-quality grapes which are vintage focussed and that will play an integral part in producing the very best Hencote Estate wines.

 

Harvesting is a busy time of the year for all concerned and we are extremely grateful for the support we received from our volunteer pickers. They braved the elements to select only the finest grapes, sorting them by hand in our winery to eventually moving them onto pressing and maturation.

We began harvesting on October 4th, two weeks later than our 2018 vintage and also ended two weeks later. The fruit has benefited from an extended period of hangtime on the vines enabling us to optimise their maturity that has led to the production of healthy grapes.

The climate always plays a part and despite the challenges faced we are very pleased with the purity and elegance of the fruit supported by a fine acid structure. Now we get ready for the winter months and work doesn’t stop just because the harvest has ended.

We are already planning for 2020 where we will have several new wine launches which we are very excited about and cannot wait to share with our guests and diners.