"Frosts in late April reduced the grape crop for many growers across the UK. The vines of course, still want to reproduce, but when a late air frost destroys the first buds, the crop is never as abundant.

Then came the fabulous months of almost continuous sunshine, heat-waves and drought. Whilst our gardens and pasture went barren, the vines had dug deeper to find their water source, so bore no ill effects from the lack of rain, and had an opportunity to ripen great fruit on the vine.

As a grape matures it loses acidity and gains sugar, so the sweetness of the grapes dictates the alcohol percentage of the wine. For sparkling wine there is such a thing as too much alcohol and not enough acidity. This is beginning to be a major problem in parts of Europe - high alcohol wine doesn’t suit all styles and can certainly be a problem in traditional method sparkling where the second fermentation in the bottle generates another 1.5% alcohol. The result has been early harvest, with many producers racing to pick their grapes before the potential alcohol gets too high. Similarly, if acidity drops too much, the wine can become flabby - lacking fruit characteristics and tang. Here at Nutbourne the 2026 Nutty vintage sparkling should be good (bear in mind this is a long game, it won't be released until 2032), but we will struggle to make our lower alcohol Nutty Wild at just 10.5% alcohol. In contrast our still whites should be intense and characterful; we managed to pick early enough to make a superb refreshing blush rose but the real 2026 champions are going to be the reds.

It is most definitely A Red Wine Year. The Pinot Noir berries are rich, wholesome and lasting with ripe brown pips and soft skins. We are also experimenting with a Pinot Meunier red - usually quite high in tannin, but this year softer with amazing earthy character and black fruit potential. We have quantities of fruit undergoing
cold maceration to extract colour, aroma and flavour using “dry ice” (CO2) at minus 80 degrees to delay the fermentation from starting too quickly. Some Pinot Noir is still hanging on the vines gaining extra ripeness in the Autumn sunshine."

- GG