UK viticultural consultant counters negative harvest news

UK viticultural consultant Stephen Skelton MW has spoken out in defence of this year’s grape harvest in England.

Stephen Skelton MW

Speaking to the drinks business yesterday, following news Nyetimber has abandoned its 2012 crop, Skelton said, “This year’s harvest certainly isn’t a write off.”

Acknowledging that it was a “difficult year,” due to a “bad flowering” and a wet summer, he stressed, “there are people with good crops.”

“It is not all doom and gloom out there – I have growers, clients and friends, with good crops of healthy, high sugar, balanced acidity grapes,” he stated.

As reported yesterday by db, while volumes will be “measurably lower,” the English Wine Producers association confirmed: “the quality of fruit reported from commercial growers is very good.”

Similarly, Skelton said that although volumes will be down in 2012, good, free-draining sites that have been managed well will have a late but still good harvest.

Producers in Kent, East Sussex and East Anglia he said were less affected by the poor weather this year due to their position in the eastern, drier side of the UK.

The high levels of acidity in the grapes harvested this year in England he said would not be a problem for sparkling wine producers, who require a low pH for their base wines.

He also said such producers would be able to “eke out” stocks, offsetting lower levels of production this year.

Hush Heath on 11.10.12: “Great Pinot ready to pick and Chardonnay about 10-14 days off ready – both healthy and, for the year, excellent crops.”

For those making still wine, he admitted, “there will be shortages”.

As a result, producers will “retrench and sell more from the gate,” he said, referring to cellar door sales.

Meanwhile, he concluded, “The trade, which doesn’t taken much still [English] wine anyway, will be kept short.”