Jenkyn Place echoes ‘vintage of the century’ hope

Simon Bladon, owner of Jenkyn Place Vineyard, has echoed the expectant hope of fellow Hampshire wine estate owner Ian Kellett that 2016 could be the ‘vintage of the century’ for his estate.

Jenkyn Place owner Simon Bladon with daughter and estate marketing manager, Camilla in the vineyard in Bentley, Hampshire (Photo: Jenkyn Place)

Commenting on the impending harvest at Jenkyn Place in Bentley, Hampshire, Bladon said: “Our Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier all look particularly good this year, and all are ripening well. This could yet turn out to be our harvest of the century at Jenkyn Place.

“The hot weather in August and early September has gone a long way to make up for the poor weather earlier in the summer. We have lots of small berries (millerandage), most of them with two bunches per cane – none with three – so flavours should be nicely concentrated and full.

“In terms of quantity, we think we will have a slightly higher tonnage than last year. This is in spite of green-harvesting a lot of small bunches on the top half of the canopy at the end of August so as to encourage the vines to put more energy into the main clusters.”

Bladon’s comments come as Ian Kellett, owner and managing director of Hambledon Vineyard, predicted that the quality and quantity of the grapes harvested in England this year could see it outperform Champagne for the first time.

“Should the weather keep this up it looks likely to be one of the best vintages of the last 100 years in England – this would most certainly overtake many regions of France in quality and quantity,” Kellett said.

“It’s an exciting time to be part of English Wine and I’m looking forward to tasting the results of a brilliant British summer.”

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Back at Jenkyn Place, Bladon is looking forward to a harvest time at his 5ha estate beginning around mid-October.

Pinot Noir grapes approaching ripeness at Jenkyn Place Vineyard. Harvesting is expected to begin in mid-October (Photo: Jenkyn Place)

“We are now in the middle of veraison, the period which sees the onset of ripening when the berries change colour. The acid levels are definitely lower than they were at this point last year, which is very positive, and the sugar levels are higher – which is great.

“This seems to point to an earlier harvest than last year, but the timing of veraison would still suggest that we could be looking at harvest in the second half of October.”

Bladon also reported that disease had been kept to a minimum by the estate’s strict programme of vine spraying.

“Where diseases are concerned we have had a little downy mildew, but this has been kept under control with our spray programme and we are now just beginning to spot botrytis on one or two individual berries, but we should be able to keep this under control,” he said.

“Rainfall was high early in the year, but the combination of our vineyards’ greensand and underlying chalk means that it has given us no problems at all. The vines’ tap roots run deep.