As the season turns to late Autumn and the bird scarers in the vineyard finally fall silent, it is a time to reflect on the past year … and what a year!  We realise, looking back at previous writings post-harvest, that the unpredictability of each growing season has become something of a mantra but 2024 seems to have capped the lot.

Ironically, we actually recorded more warm growing days (averages above 10 degrees) during March, April and May this year than since we started recording in 2017 – the year of our very first small harvest.  Even the glorious 2018 season, abundant in yield and quality, was no match.  The net result of that was budburst falling almost two weeks earlier tantalising us with the prospect of a longer ripening period later.

Despite this, we still had to cope with very wet ground conditions (I think it started raining in November and never really stopped!) but counted ourselves fortunate that we didn’t have to rely on our tractor to get much-needed base fertilisers to our vines – turning instead to our dripline fertigation system to deliver what was needed at the right time.  All set then for a fine year.

At which point the summer arrived!

And with it, a season of such variable conditions that we soon gave up trying to interpret our various weather apps.  One week in particular swinging from cold northerly winds to deluges of rain to extreme heat reaching the mid-thirties - a perfect combination for high humidity. For many vineyards across the country, this meant unusually heavy disease pressure (particularly Downy Mildew) from early on and a challenge to keep this from the ripening grapes.

With these conditions in mind, the decision was made to undertake a number of Green Harvests (removing a percentage of bunches) in the hope that the remainder could mature as well as possible.

As if this was not enough to contend with, an entire pigeon population seemed to have decided that Chilworth Vineyard was the finest eatery around … hence the prolonged (but unfortunately very necessary) season of bird-scaring bangs and booms this year!

There is, however, a happy ending to this tale of mixed fortunes.

With the help of our wonderful volunteers we had three thoroughly enjoyable days of picking to bring in our Pinot and Chardonnay grapes, having held on as long as we could for a later than usual harvest to ensure we had the quality we were looking for.

Now that the grapes have gone, a large flock of pigeons overflying the vineyard at sunset is actually quite a nice sight!