Apart from the Solaris vines which still haven’t caught up from the damage they sustained earlier in the year, the vines are doing really well. Here is a photo looking down the row with the Phoenix on the left and the Orion on the right:
They are now in flower, and this is a particularly important time for them in terms of weather conditions. Wet weather during flowering can cause poor fruit set which leads to a low harvest. So it is great news that, without wishing to speak too soon, the weather here in the last few weeks has generally been very good. Lots of warm sunny days and not much rain.
I have allowed two bunches to grow on each shoot, and pinched out all side shoots below the grapes to give them as much air circulation as possible. The next photo gives a good impression of how many bunches of grapes I should end up with if all goes well. Eventually I’m hoping to get enough to make a demijohn (4.5 litres) of each variety but that won’t be until the vines have fully matured. The plan this year is to just combine them all into one ‘blend’ and hopefully get enough for a single demijohn. This certainly isn’t ideal as they all have slightly different ripening times, but it’s the best I can hope for at the moment.
Hi Ben,
My name is Nathan. I’ve grown grapes in a greenhouse for several years. I make wine from it and I have to say it is really good, but personal taste and the fact that it is my wine needs to put this assessment into context of course.
like you I have also made a wide variety of country wines. again, I have to say they are all good. my aim is to be self sufficient in wine and I’m now close – which is quite an achievement because I drink a lot of wine!
I have grown fruit and vegetables on my allotments for years. Now I am planning to plant a vineyard, very similar to the one you have. It is whilst planning this that I looked at you blog to get a few ideas.
so, I was wondering if you would summarise the varieties you planted and whether they are suited to south cambridgeshire (where I live) or not. I would be happy to share my experiences if you would be interested in knowing how things go.
Nathan
Hi Nathan, nice to hear from a local fellow winemaker! I spent quite a bit of time looking into varieties suited for the UK. I also decided that I wanted to be organic if possible as I am not keen on using pesticides. This narrows the choice down to several German hybrids. I was unsure which to go for so thought I would try a few and see which worked best. I have planted Solaris, Phoenix, Orion and Regent.
I am unable to comment on the quality of wine they produce at this stage as this is the first year they are producing grapes. From what I can see all are doing ok, although I had some frost issues with the Solaris, and wet weather during flowering of the Orions. The advantage to having several varieties budding and flowering at different times is that given the uncontrollable weather at least one variety may do well each season! The downside is that they all ripen at different times so I will have to make four separate batches. This should be ok in the future when they are fully mature, but at the moment I won’t get enough of each to make a full demijohn so will have to combine them, harvesting when they are all ‘on average’ ripe.
I will be very interested to hear how you get on, we may be able to swap tips!
Cheers,
Ben