Inside Harvest 2026: A Record-Breaking Season at Hattingley Valley
“Very, very early, very warm and dry.” Our Head Winemaker, Rob MacCulloch, says the 2026 vintage will be remembered for its remarkable growing season, with speed, sunshine and drought defining the year.
Our Earliest Harvest on Record
The harvest dates this year say it all. We began pressing on 1 September and finished on 30 September. Rather neat, you might think, but much of the pressing was completed within a two-week period, when it was all hands on deck for our team, with very little time to take a breath.
In our previous blog, Rob explored the trend towards earlier harvest dates in English wine. And indeed, his pre-harvest predictions came to pass. Although we did not see grapes in August, the pace of the growing season meant that producers across the South of England experienced exceptionally early start dates.
A Harvest That Kept Us on Our Toes
Our concerns about the logistical challenges of an early harvest were realised as we faced logistical difficulties managing the pace and quantity of fruit arriving at the winery. Despite thorough preparation and an experienced team, the exceptionally compressed harvest left us constantly up against the clock. As Rob puts it:
“This never seemed like an ‘easy’ harvest at any point, particularly in hindsight. From picking logistics to pressing logistics to staffing logistics to equipment logistics... we were always up against the clock.”
The team's experience and hard work were vital in rising to the challenge, as Rob says: “Recruiting great people with good experience really does work and the harvest team this year, made the vintage for us. They rose to the challenge of sanitising a stubborn-to-clean winery in a busy, warm, sticky-with-grape juice harvest, which is just plain hard work".
Introducing the Dolav: A More Efficient Harvest
Another new addition made a significant difference to our approach this year: the Dolav.
As the first phase of our transition away from traditional grape crates, we invested in 259 Dolavs for Harvest 2026. Each holds up to 235kg of grapes in a 445-litre container, compared with just 18kg in a standard crate.
From transporting fruit from the vineyard to weighing grapes on arrival, the Dolavs improved efficiency at every stage of the process. Loading the press, a task that previously required six people, can now be completed with just two.
Unlike traditional crates, which must be washed, dried and stacked after every picking day, Dolavs simply require a pressure wash before they're ready to go again. The time saved was significant, allowing the team to focus on the more critical winemaking work and ultimately supporting wine quality.
A Mixed Picture for Fruit Quality
The quality of the fruit this year was quite mixed. While summer drought was consistent, rainfall towards the end of summer was not. Some vineyards experienced botrytis, despite the drought, while others produced the concentrated flavours and small berry sizes associated with drought-grown grapes.
Despite these challenges, overall, we're happy with the quality of the of the fruit received across our varieties and regions. Rob particularly highlighted the value of our partner growers in a year when challenges ranged from spring frost to summer drought and pockets of botrytis caused by humidity.
“Our partner growers provided 80% of our fruit this year, proving very valuable indeed. This year really showed the merit of our multi-regional strategy.”
Working with growers across the South of England gives us access to a diverse range of fruit, helping us select the highest quality and make wines that reflect the region.
Ripe Fruit and Good Acidity
This harvest also brought what Rob describes as ‘New World’ levels of acidity, previously unseen in English conditions. Despite the warmer growing season, we didn't need to make any acid adjustments to the juices we pressed, even though acidification was permitted this year in England.
“Our total acidity levels mostly ranged from 9 to 11 grams per litre in our grape juice. That’s not ‘low acidity’ for a sparkling wine producer; that’s just ‘ripe acidity’ for once. I’d be delighted to have acidity levels like this again in the future.”
Lessons for Future Harvests
The biggest lessons from this harvest have been the importance of preparation and vineyard infrastructure in increasingly warm growing seasons.
As Rob explains, early harvests mean preparing everything well in advance to receive and press fruit within a much shorter window. This year, we had just one month to prepare for harvest, rather than the more familiar three.
Another important observation was that our best fruit came from older vineyards, where established root systems and good quality soils helped the vines withstand drought. Developing our vineyard soils to better manage dry conditions will therefore be crucial for the future.
Looking Ahead to the 2026 Vintage
Overall, this has been a good-quality harvest, giving us two ripe vintages in a row, something rather exceptional and certainly worth celebrating.
While we'll have a clearer picture of the 2026 vintage when we begin blending in the spring, the first finished wines are still around four years away. For now, we're raising a glass to another promising year and looking forward to seeing what these wines become.
Want to learn more about the early harvest and the changing growing season in England? Read our previous blog, Preparing for our Earliest Harvest Yet.
