English winemakers expect ‘vintage year’ after record-breaking summer heat

Hot weather means sweeter grapes, but outlook gloomier for beermakers, as drought diminishes barley harvest

English sparkling winemakers expect their earliest grape harvest and a “vintage year” after a scorching summer quickly ripened grapes.

However, beer sellers have warned of a potential shortage after record-breaking temperatures and a drought hitting much of England has caused poor yields of barley.

Nyetimber, which was the first producer in England to grow pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier exclusively for sparkling wine, has 11 vineyards in West Sussex, Kent and Hampshire.

It has announced it will begin picking grapes on 14 September for this year’s harvest, the earliest since the company planted its first vines in 1988. The winemaker’s next earliest harvest was in 2018, when the first grape was picked on 19 September.

Nyetimber said this harvest, for which it has recruited 500 pickers, will yield almost 2,500 tonnes of grapes, which could result in more than 1.5 million bottles of sparkling wine being produced from the 2026 vintage.

Because of the late spring frosts, it is expected the harvest will be slightly smaller than usual, but that the large number of sunny days this year will have concentrated the sugar in the grapes, meaning 2026 could be a vintage year. The company’s first vintage was Blanc de Blancs 1992, which won numerous wine prizes.

Nyetimber’s head winemaker, Cherie Spriggs, said: “This year brings another unprecedented vintage as we begin harvesting earlier than ever. We are excited to taste the fruits of our labour, which as always has come with certain challenges: late spring frosts that affected almost 30% and the summer drought, which has decreased the size of certain berries. However, the hot and sunny weather has helped to balance out these factors, giving us strong potential for fantastic wine quality.”

Though winemakers are celebrating, the outlook is gloomier for beer aficionados. Lisa Hogan, who runs the Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire with her partner, the TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson , has said there may be “less beer all around” after extreme weather led to a poor barley harvest.

This summer was the UK’s hottest on record, according to provisional Met Office data. In England, temperatures peaked at 38.1C (100.1F) at Kew Gardens in London on 13 August, and June had already been confirmed as the country’s hottest since records began in 1884 .

Scientists have said these heatwaves are only possible because of the climate crisis, driven by burning fossil fuels. August was the joint hottest month ever recorded around the world, with global temperatures reaching 1.65C above preindustrial levels, scientists said on Thursday, amid warnings of further heating on the way.

Hogan and Clarkson make Hawkstone Lager on their farm, which has been made famous by the Amazon show Clarkson’s Farm.

Hogan said: “I think a lot of barley farmers suffered … And funnily enough, last year our yields were terrible, but the quality was better. This year, after a second year of dry weather, both the harvest and its quality have suffered.” She said farmers were struggling to irrigate crops, leading to poor yields.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board has said the barley harvest could be the worst on record and said yields were running 19% below the five-year average last month.

Hogan added that other countries are facing similar difficulties: “It is a struggle because if you have another bad harvest, you won’t be able to supplement, say, by getting grain in from Poland. So, we just have to pay a higher cost, and then we have to try not to pass that on to the customer.”