Harvest 2023 update – a vintage year for the Surrey Hills
As you may have heard along the English wine grapevine, 2023 has been a fantastic harvest year for our nation’s vineyards – and, here in the Surrey Hills, it’s been truly exceptional.
Predictions of a ‘great year’ for English winemakers started back in May, when spring arrived and passed with minimum frost damage.
It’s not all been plain sailing, however, as a very wet July saw the berries swell with water but also led to concern that mildew would hit the fruit, a potential disaster for the Albury team, for example, who manage their vineyard organically.
Fortunately, the wet but warm summer led to plump bunches and the September sunshine helped to ripen the fruit in a longer than normal growing season, which has allowed for great flavour development.
All of our Surrey Hills vineyards are unique, with each facing different growing challenges and varying ambitions for their wine collections – from single vintage sparkling wines to elegant rosés, crisp whites and distinctive orange wines.
Across the board, we’re delighted that the 2023 harvest has turned out to be exceptional both in terms of quantity and quality here in the Surrey Hills.
Below, you’ll find harvest highlights from each of our vineyards…
For press enquiries about Vineyards of the Surrey Hills
and any of our vineyards, please get in touch.
Photo: Grape pickers at Albury Organic Vineyard - by The Big Ladder Photographer
Albury Organic Vineyard, near Guildford
Nick Wenman, vineyard owner
In total, Albury harvested nearly 54 tonnes of fruit from their vineyards. This means that they’re likely to produce around 45,000 bottles of wine from the 2023 vintage. Most of these won’t be ready for drinking until 2026 but they will release their flagship still wine – Silent Pool Rosé - in May.
As an organic and biodynamic vineyard, the team at Albury adopt a different approach to winemaking and this year’s conditions created the perfect opportunity to focus on another more natural technique...
A group of volunteers joined Nick and his vineyard managers to make a 'Pied de Cuve'. This involved picking a few buckets of Chardonnay grapes, de-stemming the berries and crushing them by hand. They left the juice to ferment from wild yeasts found naturally occurring in the vineyard, giving the wine a ‘sense of place’ or ‘terroir’ as the French would say. Ten days later, they added the fermenting Pied de Cuve to the rest of the Chardonnay fermenting in the winery – not in a barrel or tank, but in a concrete egg. As far as we know, they’re one of only two producers in the UK making wine in eggs!
Rather than a new winemaking trend, the idea of using egg-shaped fermenters has been around since ancient times according to findings of archaeologies in Georgia who unearthed clay pots known as 'qvevri'. The first modern egg-shaped wine fermenter was produced in 2001 and the egg’s smooth surface allows the wine to move continuously and freely whilst always remaining in contact with the yeast so more complex flavours develop than in a barrel or tank.
The Albury team had a record number of volunteers from the Albury wine club and the local community lending a hand with the grape picking. Nearly 300 people were involved in the harvest this year.
Read more about the Albury Organic Vineyard 2023 harvest here
Photo: The sun sets on a record harvest at Denbies Wine Estate
Denbies Wine Estate, near Dorking
Oliver Whitfield, vineyard manager
This year, Denbies Wine Estate produced 525 tonnes of fruit. The last time Denbies had a harvest of more than 500 tonnes was 2006. The average tonnage for the last 10 years, excluding 2023, was 252 tonnes.
Quality was maintained throughout the season with extra hours of leaf and fruit thinning by the vineyard team - and, as such, Denbies have got some special wines in the winery.
The professional team had to choose when to pick very carefully and adjust start times to compensate for wet bunches. There were also times that they delayed the pick for a week to allow the vines to re-balance themselves and drop the excess water out of the berries. If they hadn’t done this, the acids and sugars would have been far too low.
Denbies’ first fruit of the year (the Solaris - to make the ’23 edition of Orange Solaris) came onto the Crush Pad on September 19. Nearly six weeks later, they were doing their final picks - of Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. Truly a bumper year for Denbies Wine Estate.
Take an indoor wine tasting tour to learn more about winemaking at Denbies Wine Estate
Photo: The Greyfriars Vineyard team celebrate harvest 2023
Greyfriars Vineyard, near Guildford and Farnham
Mike Wagstaff, vineyard owner
After 13 days of frantic picking and pressing, Greyfriars Vineyard absolutely smashed their record for the total size of the harvest by more than 25% - their previous record had stood at about 200 tonnes. A “monster” harvest.
In total, about 315 volunteers joined the Greyfriars’ team over three volunteer picking days. During this time, they hand-picked an extraordinary 39 tonnes of fantastic fruit together.
As well as hand-picking, Greyfriars Vineyard used a machine harvester in certain areas of the vineyard for the third year in a row.
Initial tastings of the pressed juice have been very exciting and, in particular, this is the first year that Greyfriars have had enough Pinot Blanc to press it on its own. If you would like to have the opportunity to taste some of the new wine in the tank, Greyfriars are hosting tours and tastings at the cave and winery this winter.
Oliver Key and the winery team processed a record amount of Greyfriars’ fruit but also almost 30 tonnes of fruit for their contract winemaking clients.
Photo: Grape pickers at Chilworth Manor Vineyard celebrating harvest 2023 in the Surrey Hills
Chilworth Manor Vineyard, near Guildford
John MacRae-Brown, vineyard manager
The average number of bunches per vine forming after flowering was consistently higher across the varieties than in previous years and their considerable sizes and weights were very evident as the season progressed. So much so, that in order to ensure quality, Chilworth ended up having no less than three ‘green’ harvests – removing a percentage of bunches to allow the others to ripen as well as possible.
With the introduction of their Fertigation System (dripline running parallel with our Frost Protection spray), Chilworth were able to deliver specific nutrients direct to the crops’ roots on a row-by-row basis. The same system was also used to irrigate their 3,500 newly-planted vines to ensure good root growth and rapid establishment.
Despite a relatively benign August and September, veraison and ripening proved to be a more protracted affair than expected - although it did mean that Chilworth were able to harvest selectively throughout October and provide their winemaker with beautifully sweet, clean and juice-filled grapes.
On one day alone, 14 tonnes of Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier were picked with the help of Chilworth’s volunteers.
To give you an idea of when Chilworth Manor Vineyard’s 2023 sparkling wines will be available, they’ve just released their 2018 Classic Cuvée "Alwyn". The 2023 vintage of their Chilworth Manor Rosé, meanwhile, will be released in May 2024.
Read more about the Chilworth Manor Vineyard 2023 harvest here
Photo: All the family help out at High Clandon Estate Vineyard's harvest days
High Clandon Vineyard, near Guildford and Woking
Sibylla Tindale, vineyard owner
2023 smashed High Clandon’s record harvest– it was around 50% bigger than their average yield. It was not only the biggest harvest but one that also supplied really tasty grapes. A lot of hand-manicuring went on in the vineyard this year, with High Clandon dropping one third of their bunches to enable really good ripening and flavour development.
This year, High Clandon’s Chardonnay out-performed itself – thriving on the chalky terroir. The Pinot Noirs had monster-sized bunches with superb ‘sucrosity’ and will be gorgeous in the Cuvée.
As the most intimate of the Vineyards of the Surrey Hills, High Clandon only need half a day to harvest – but picked a perfect day for it full of sunshine. They were even joined by someone from Singapore and had a captain in the artillery among their picking grew, as well as regular volunteers and stalwart friends. A marvelous lunch was, of course, enjoyed by all in the Glass Barn afterwards.
High Clandon’s quintessence is crafted from the classic trio of Champagne grapes creating singular, matured vintage-only cuvées with long bottle maturation of at least five years. This means you’ll have to wait until summer 2028 to try their 2023 vintage.
With this year proving a great vintage for quality and volume, High Clandon will not only be looking at some gentle lee-oak contact for their Cuvée release – but they will also, possibly, produce a small volume of sparkling rosé wine. Well, cheers to that!
