The UK's 2023 harvest will be the country's “biggest ever” with the number of bottles produced set to beat the previous record, set in 2018, by more than 50 per cent, according to a report by Wine GB.
This year’s production, dubbed a “miracle harvest”, has enabled British wineries to produce between 20 and 22 million bottles. In terms of scale, the previous record year, 2018, saw 13.1 million bottles produced by British wineries.
This year's bumper harvest came despite lacklustre summer temperatures, with the warmth in September and early in the year really boosting yields.
In total, 30,000 tonnes of grapes were harvested across vineyards in England and Wales in 2023.
The total area of vineyards in production now stands at around 3,230 hectares, an increase of 151% from the 2,138 hectares in production in 2018.
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“The excellent yields are not only down to almost perfect weather for grapes at key times of the growing season, but also come on the back of more hectares coming into production than ever before,” said Wine GB report author Stephen Skelton.
Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Meunier and Bacchus performed exceptionally well this year, with the four varieties averaging 10 tonnes per hectare across all vineyards, and 15.9 tonnes per hectare in the top 25% of vineyards.
“There has been one silver lining to our miserable summer, and it has been a great wine season,” said Nicola Bates, CEO of WineGB.
“Consumers in the UK are consuming more and more local produce and at the same time exports are increasing, particularly to Scandinavia and Japan. We look forward to offering more wine to our growing consumer base.”
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