How have the vines coped with this heat??

Aug 18
4 min read

Well, a lot better than we have! The vines are looking happy and green but the heat when we’re working amongst them has been quite intense. And the horse flies!!! This year they have been ferocious!

It’s that stage in the season where we are leaf stripping to expose the bunches of grapes to sunlight and helping to keep them clean and healthy. It’s a time consuming process but it is tremendously satisfying when we see how much lovely fruit there is.

Vines have strong tap roots which will bury down through the soil in search of water so in some ways this drought is actually beneficial in making the plants stronger.

We’re amazed that the water table is still giving after the extent of this dry weather but speaking to a local friend, whose water comes from a bore hole, she said there has been no problems with flow – fingers crossed.

So where are we at this season. Well throughout the growing season we have been saying ‘so far so good’ – which is good news! At every stage in the cycle this year the weather has been kind and for that we feel incredibly lucky.

Wild flowers have also enjoyed the weather!

The crop is plentiful, clean and ripening – ‘SO FAR SO GOOD!’

Of course we are now starting to worry about the birds so for those of you who are local you will soon see the kites going up plus the UFO balloon. Although, sometimes I wonder if the birds look out for this activity which lets them know the grapes are getting sweet! Can picture a look out blackbird relaying the news to his feathered friends!

Talking of birds, the house martin nests which we put up in the spring have been an outstanding success. We started with 6 Woodstone nests and, to our delight, one became occupied in May and safely reared a brood of three. Then all of a sudden we had an influx! They took up occupancy of all the nest boxes and when they were all taken some started even building their own! The sparrows have thankfully kept their distance and the nest boxes have worked a treat. So we now have a wonderful number of baby house martins and visiting adults – brilliant to watch and hear them chatter away.

Within the last few days we’ve spotted veraison starting in the Pinot Noir, this is when they start to get their colour and look spectacular. Normally they say that harvest will take place six to seven weeks after the onset of veraison which would make harvest late September/early October and could be the earliest ever for us.

We couldn’t get our grapes harvested if it wasn’t for the incredible help we get from our volunteers. And this year we will be putting out the usual mayday but rather than harvesting everything in one day, harvest will be over two or three days. So if you think you might like to join our merry band of harvesters keep a look out as we get closer.

This harvest is going to be rather different in another way at Velfrey Vineyard this year – why? – well – drum roll please! We are going to be MAKING some of our own wine! Thanks to Ryan’s hard work and research, we managed to obtain a grant from Welsh Government to help cover the build and the equipment. And early in the new year Andy and Ryan set about constructing a special building within the barn to house winery equipment and it is now all plumbed in, wired and connected. It all looks shiny, impressive – and daunting! But the Pembrokeshire Winery will be in operation this season with our initial plan to make some still wine on site. The grapes for our sparkling wine will still be transported off site for the time being as the traditional method requires more equipment and expertise and we don’t want to run before we can walk! But it will mean that grapes will start to go from field, to barn, to press, to tank, to bottle - all on site.

Our wines have been winning awards again this year including our sparklings medaling at Decanter World Wine Awards and WineGB – which led to us jointly winning Best in Region Wales with our friends Vale Vineyard who are located in Denbighshire.

Once again we have been enjoying meeting people from all over the world on our vineyard tours – and discovering what a small world it is! And we were absolutely thrilled (and surprised!) to be named by Tripadvisor in their top 10% of attractions in the world for 2026 as voted by visitors.

We’ve added a red wine to our wine portfolio - Coch which is made from the lovely fruity grapes Rondo grown at another Welsh vineyard in the neighbouring county of Carmarthenshire that we have worked closely with. This wine is beautifully smooth, fruity and velvety.

Summer recap in pictures including helping to launch the new pilot ship Llanion at Milford Haven; Wimbledon; the Royal Welsh; World Chef's forum; Kew Gardens; Gwin Cymru AGM at Ancre Hill Vineyard and new garden work!

In extra news:

Back to harvest time last year and for once the grapes were not the most important things we were concentrating on!

Craig and Jemma came to join us with nine month old Rory to help with picking. Meantime, we were watching Sophie like a hawk as she was past her due date and the arrival of the next member of the Velfrey team was imminent!

Fortunately, the grapes were successfully gathered in and safely received at Halfpenny Green winery before little Caelan Llywelyn Mounsey made his appearance!

So what a year for us! Two gorgeous, smiley happy little grandsons who are bundles of endless fun.

The new recruits to the Velfrey Vineyard Team - r--l Caelan inspecting the new grape press; Rory keeping the dogs in check; Rory and Papa looking for Glen the robot mower