English Wine WEek and blackcurrant Harvesting

Blackcurrant harvest started early. Vine tending and e-Bike tours are going well.

How has the Summer Solstice already happened? As well as time itself seeming to speed up, the harvest is coming early this year, due to the warm weather. The apple blossom was out weeks earlier than usual. The blackcurrant harvest started this week, due to the bushes flowering early – fun fact – blackcurrants are always ready for harvest precisely 90 days after the bud breaks into flower – yes they really are that punctual! Our e-Bikers on this week’s tours were delighted to see the harvester.

English Wine Week is now underway – from Saturday 21st to Sunday 29th June, and lots of exciting things are happening around White Heron Estate. Wine writer, Alice Griffiths, visited us for a quick, early morning e-Bike tour and tasting, as part of her Guinness World Record breaking attempt to visit 80 English vineyards during the week. The vines are very healthy, and we seem set to get a good harvest – we’re just praying for more sunshine than last summer, which looks likely. The vines have been lovingly hand-pruned, lifted, bud-rubbed, and this week we are weeding between the vines with a great new machine hired from a neighbouring vineyard. 2025 is looking like a good year for blackcurrants, apples and grapes – fingers crossed!