A once-in-a-lifetime harvest for all sorts of reasons - not least picking our best Chardonnay in the middle of September rather than November!
After last year’s sunny growing season, 2026 decided to turn things up yet another hot notch. It’s been an exceptionally warm and dry year, with low disease pressure and fruit ripening much earlier than we expected. Harvest began in the first week of September with Ortega and Regent (our earliest start in memory) and from there it’s been pretty much non-stop.
This is also our biggest harvest yet, with lots of healthy, flavour-packed fruit coming through the winery and very little breathing space between varieties. It's also our second harvest from our sister site, Birling, and the first year we’ve picked a really substantial amount of fruit there as the young vines begin to reach maturity.
The winery and fruit is all full of natural yeasts. As usual, we’re wild fermenting wherever we can and letting the fruit lead the way in terms of what we make. Pet nats remain a big part of our production, with four on the go this year - two with Ortega, one Chardonnay and one Pinot Noir / Meunier/Chardonnay blend. There’s a lot of Ortega destined for our still wines, including skin contact and amphora aged, and base wine for Pelegrim, our signature traditional method sparkling wine. As usual, there’s also quite a few experiments bubbling away including wine for our democratic winemaking Sun Dirt Yeast club where members vote on what wine to make and how to make it.
Probably most exciting for us is the opportunity to make red wine. After a couple of years without the right fruit for it, we’re making some reds again for the first time since 2023 - aiming for the kind of light, fresh, juicy reds we like to drink ourselves and which England is so good at.
We’re not quite finished - some of our best parcels will be picked next week, destined for our premium stills. Nothing at Westwell goes to waste if we can help it, so we’re teaming up with brewery Burning Sky again this year, sending grape skins their way for some more beer/wine collaborations. Used pressings also go to Pelegrims to be extracted and repurposed into their range of skincare.
An early harvest and a big crop has meant back-to-back picking, pressing, cleaning, sorting and ferment-watching, alongside all the usual logistical dramas that come with trying to get a lot of grapes from the vineyard to the winery at exactly the right time. It certainly doesn’t get easier, but it’s worth it. We’re all knackered, the winery is full…watch this space!
