By Richard Holloway, Stroud Wine Company
I’ve just finished reading the latest Stroud Times article on the beginning of the harvest at Woodchester Valley vineyard.
The recent, intense heat and long, hot days have given near perfect conditions for growing grapes in Gloucestershire, so much so that their harvest started a full month earlier than ever before. The grass all around the vines may be scorched, but the vines are green, vibrant and healthy. This has nothing to do with irrigation, vines have an extensive root system and will seek out ground water from the depths.
Across Europe, soaring temperatures are ripening grapes earlier and earlier, with many harvests moving forward at a similar rate to England’s and causing damage to other crops through water stress. However, as long as you have appropriate varieties, grape vines are perfectly adapted to their environment and are able to thrive even in intense heat and drought conditions. There are vineyards we have visited in Greece, for example, where roots extend over 30 metres down, just to draw out any water they can find. Varieties such as Assyrtiko, Savatiano and Malagousia still flourish there and produce the most delicious, freshest wines imaginable.
Looking even further afield, both Australia and New Zealand produce exceptional wines, but they’re also facing serious ecological pressures. In Australia, vineyards are grappling with heatwaves, droughts, and rising salinity, which has led to increased reliance on irrigation and water-intensive practices. There are many wineries producing grapes where they just shouldn’t be grown, and the scale of industrial viticulture in some regions raises serious questions about long-term resource management. It is thought that to produce 1 bottle of Hardy’s Shiraz, for example, it requires up to 500 litres of water, all to then end up on a supermarket shelf for £6.
New Zealand, particularly Marlborough, is dealing with less rainfall, higher temperatures, and shifting water demand — all of which are stressing the wine industry. Sauvignon Blanc dominates the landscape there, and while it’s globally popular, the monoculture and export-driven growth have environmental costs. Dry farming is rare, and many vineyards depend on irrigation to maintain yields.
Irrigation has long been frowned upon and even outlawed in some European countries, but it is becoming more and more widely practiced. Dry-farming, however, means vines are grown without irrigation, relying solely on natural rainfall which not only conserves water but also encourages deeper root systems and produces more terroir-driven wines. Additionally, low-intervention, wild yeast fermentation, hand harvesting and no fining or filtration all let the vineyard speak for itself.
We are now seeing more and more of the wines we sell as being actively promoted as dry-farmed. We work with small producers who are setting out to make their wines in as environmentally friendly and as natural a manner as possible. Their wines speak of place, not process and do so without draining natural resources such as rivers.
As supermarkets race to the bottom of the mass produced, bland, preservative dependent wine lakes, we love to champion sustainable and ethical winemaking from people who care about what they do, which in turn means delicious tasting and great value wines all the time. Who wouldn’t want that?
Click HERE to find out more about The Stroud Wine Company
VISIT OUR WITHEYS YARD SHOP
5 Witheys Yard,
55 High Street,
Stroud,
Gloucestershire
GL5 1AS
