ONE of Gloucestershire’s best-known vineyards is predicting another exceptional vintage after a hot and dry summer provided favourable conditions for its vines.

Three Choirs Vineyards, near Newent, says this year’s crop could surpass its bumper 2025 harvest, with its 75 acres of vines benefiting from sustained warm weather since the beginning of June.

Winemaker Martin Fowke said the season had begun with wet conditions, encouraging rapid early growth, before giving way to the prolonged dry spell.

He said: “It was wet early on in the year and so growth was rapid. Since early June it has been dry and hot.

“We are not irrigating the vines, as we don’t want to dilute the crop, although we are watering the young vines that aren’t cropping yet.

“The vines are very forward and so there is scope for producing some very good wines again this year.”

The promising outlook follows a particularly strong 2025 for British vineyards, when WineGB figures showed the UK harvest volume increased by 39 per cent compared with 2024.

Three Choirs believes this summer could now produce an even better vintage, continuing a run of favourable growing seasons for English wine.

Warmer conditions have helped grapes achieve greater levels of ripeness and allowed producers to experiment with different varieties and styles.

However, Martin said vineyards would increasingly need to consider how longer, hotter and drier summers could affect the industry in the decades ahead.

He said: “In terms of the future, it’s difficult to say what the effect might be of increasingly long, hot, dry summers, but future plantings will need to take these moves into account, with choice of clones and rootstocks critical.

“We also have new yeasts and winery aids to help us cope with these changes.

“In other words, the UK wine industry is evolving and adapting but the hot weather has definitely been good for viticulture.”

Those decisions are particularly important because vines can remain productive for decades.

Different rootstocks can influence how vines respond to soil and growing conditions, while selecting different clones of individual grape varieties can help vineyards adapt to warmer seasons.

Despite developments in technology, harvesting at Three Choirs remains largely a hands-on operation.

A team of 16 people handpicks the grapes, working through an average of between two and three acres each day.

Winemakers decide when individual varieties and sections of the vineyard should be picked by considering sugar levels, acidity, flavour development and weather forecasts.

The Newent vineyard currently produces around 250,000 bottles of wine each year, with its range including Classic Cuvée, Coleridge Hill, Rosé and Bacchus.

Visitors during September will also have an opportunity to see the harvest taking place, with wine tasting tours running on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

From October, tours will continue at weekends as the vineyard moves from picking the grapes towards producing what it hopes will become one of its strongest vintages yet.