Warm weather creates bumper harvest at vineyard

Warm summer weather has contributed to a bumper crop of grapes

English wine producers have reported a bumper harvest this year, thanks to the very warm summer.

Four heatwaves led to grape production almost doubling at one vineyard in the West Midlands, which said it had also been helped by a good early autumn.

Halfpenny Green Winery in Bobbington, on the Staffordshire-Shropshire border, normally begins harvesting towards the end of September and sometimes as late as November, but this year they began in mid-August and have now completed the work.

Their yield is expected to reach nearly 600 tonnes, this year compared to about 300 tonnes last year.

The Halfpenny Green vineyard opened in 1983 on the Staffordshire-Shropshire border

Halfpenny Green spans almost 30 acres and includes a restaurant, farm shop and wine-tasting facility.

The business is run by Clive Vickers and his wife, Lisa, along with other family members and a team of about 60 volunteers who help with the harvest each year.

The vines have "absolutely loved" the warm weather this year, said Mr Vickers.

"It has given us, you know, rich complex fruit character and fantastic yields at the same time," he added.

But it has been a bittersweet growing season for the couple.

In September last year, Mr Vickers' father Martin, who founded the vineyard in 1983, died unexpectedly.

Then this August, his wife's father also passed away suddenly.

Mrs Vickers said volunteers had helped them get through.

"They're our little lifeline, they're a little community," she added.

"We'd be lost without them."

The company recently invested in new wine pressing machinery, and now deals with harvests from more than 100 vineyards across England, producing up to one million bottles per year.

Around 60,000 of those are from its own harvest of 15 grape varieties producing a range of reds, whites, rosés and sparkling wines.