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Langham Wine Estate predicts harvest volume almost twice 2021
Dorset-based Langham Wine Estate is anticipating a bumper harvest for 2022, predicting that volumes will be nearly twice that of last year as picking begins this week.
Langham Wine Estate is anticipating that crop volumes will sit around 90 tonnes this year, an amount it says is comparable to the 2018 harvest, an excellent vintage in general for English wine.
The bulk of harvesting will commence on Thursday 6 October, though the estate’s vineyard team harvested the early-ripening clone Pinot Noir Précoce last week, bringing in 1.8 tonnes.
Justin Langham, owner of Langham Wine Estate said:
“The précoce was only planted in 2018 so with vines taking 2-3 years to establish, the first real harvest that’s worth counting was last year, where Langham took in 708kg; so it’s definitely off to a good start! We’re still on track for around 90 tonnes overall, which is similar to the legendary harvest of 2018.”
Langham Wine Estate is the latest in a line of English producers witnessing a strong vintage in 2022, after England’s biggest wine producer, Chapel Down, hailed a “strong harvest yield with excellent quality” and sparkling wine producer Nyetimber anticipated a record harvest.
“Our soil structure of chalk, limestone and clay loam offers good water retention when needs be and our vines have fared well in the long dry periods this summer”, commented Langham’s head winemaker, Tommy Grimshaw.
“Also, being in the South West, we have a slightly longer growing season and we’re only just starting harvest this week.
A longer growing season means that our grapes have had longer “hang time” to build up the all-important phenolic ripeness, which leads to wonderful fruit character. So, in some cases whilst the sugars may be up, and the acids may have lowered, the grapes could benefit from slightly longer on the vine to reach optimum phenolic ripeness which changes bitter flavours from the skins and the seeds to softer fruit flavours. This year we have reached amazing levels of ripeness on our large yield”.