After an exceptionally dry spring and summer, harvest at Westwell is likely to begin on September 1st this year - around two weeks earlier than we would normally expect. The grass is yellow, but the fruit is ripening beautifully and, as we hurtle towards harvest, the vineyard looks very different from this time in a cooler, wetter year.
Whilst we’re generally seeing warmer temperatures, weather and agriculture have always been unpredictable and even after the heat we’ve experienced this year, we’re still very much aware that we're growing grapes in a marginal climate. 2024 was cool and wet, and summer never really got started. But we still managed to make some great wine because volatility is part of what we do.
We really believe in the piece of land we have at Westwell. We’re on the North Downs in Kent, with flint and loam over chalk, and our particular site gives us some protection from both frost and drought. This year has reinforced how well suited it is to growing grapes. Kent has a long history of fruit growing and is one of the sunniest parts of the UK, so growing grapes and making wine feels like another happy chapter of the story.
While the grass might be yellow and the shallow-rooted plants are struggling, mature vines can access moisture much deeper in the soil. A grown-up vine has an enormous root structure, reaching far below the surface of the vineyard - up to two metres. That doesn't mean vines are immune to drought, but established vineyards can be remarkably resilient. It is also one of the reasons that understanding your particular plot, soils and vines matters so much, and why we’re so lucky to have such a great team in the vineyard who are so tuned into the site.
Vines are also quite versatile creatures - Chardonnay, one of the principal varieties grown at Westwell and across the UK, is grown successfully in vastly warmer places around the world, including Australia, so it can comfortably handle the temperatures we've experienced in 2026. It can also hold its own in cooler years, yielding lower sugar and higher acid fruit which is excellently placed to make knock out traditional method fizzers. What’s particularly exciting about our site, and about English wine more generally, is our ability to achieve really intense flavours while retaining freshness and relatively low alcohol. And in a year like this, beautiful, ripe fruit gives us options to make red wine, which is not always possible.
One of the things we love about making wine in England is the freedom. In established wine regions such as Champagne, there are extensive rules governing which grape varieties can be grown and what kinds of wine can be made. English wine is still relatively young. We have the luxury of being able to experiment - it’s a new-ish industry and still a little like the Wild West. At (wild) Westwell, we definitely make the most of it and can react to the extremes in vintages by making wines which suit whatever fruit we get.
We’ll make traditional method sparkling wine this harvest, but we'll also make still whites, oranges, reds and pinks, pet nats and a few experiments. Even as we head towards our tenth harvest, we’re still exploring what our site is capable of. We don't decide exactly what every parcel of fruit is going to become months in advance. We taste the fruit as it develops and make decisions accordingly, which is particularly important in a year like this.
The immediate practical difference in 2026 is that everything is happening earlier. You have to be ready to respond when the fruit is ready rather than when the calendar says it ought to be. This has meant a frantic time bottling wine to free up tank space, prepping the press and doing countless other jobs in both the vineyard and winery.
There’s an abundance of really beautiful fruit out there this year, so our attitude is to make hay while the sun shines. We’re going to make as much great wine from it as we can because we don't know what next year will bring.
So, is climate change good for English wine? Warmer growing seasons can help with ripening, and years like 2026 can give us extraordinary fruit. But climate change definitely doesn't make English winemaking easier. Climate change makes everything scarier and more uncertain. Extreme and unpredictable weather brings different challenges: drought, late frosts, storms, excessive rainfall and increasingly variable growing seasons. A warmer average temperature doesn't remove those risks, it’s just part of this new strange landscape.
As growers and winemakers, our job is to adapt, be nimble and be inventive. Every year is different and it always has been. The extremes may be changing, but our job is still fundamentally the same: understand the site, look after the vines and respond to the fruit that arrives. We’re still growing grapes in a marginal climate, so volatility is our normal.
But, with all these caveats, this year is looking great and we’re going to make some great wine!
