Balfour Winery, one of England’s largest producers, believes that 2023 could represent a seismic shift for the industry, after a record-breaking harvest which could create new opportunities for English wine; both in this country and abroad.

Hutchinsons agronomist Nigel Kitney has been recognised for his outstanding lifetime contribution to the fruit sector at this year’s National Fruit Show.

The 2023 grape harvest is complete and the team at Albury Organic Vineyard in Surrey is celebrating a huge crop.

As the UK horticulture sector continues to face significant challenges, from soaring production costs to a lack of certainty over future workforce availability, the NFU has welcomed many of the House of Lords’ recommendations to the government to help overcome barriers and grow the sector.

East Yorkshire vineyard Laurel Vines has been able to decrease the amount of ag-chems applied to vines using a natural product made by earthworms.

A new project is aiming to create an open standard for digital maps of commercial vineyards in the UK and around the world.

Growing Kent & Medway has awarded a share of over £1.6M to 13 businesses to fund projects that will sustainably transform the horticultural and plant-based food and drink supply chain.

Growers are being reminded to review farm insurance policies amid a much-improved crop for top fruit this season, alongside an expected increase in value.

A new collaboration between the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) and the University of Worcester is looking at how grape growers might be able to make green wine – in terms of its environmental impact, that is.

2023 brought a dull July with low light levels, high rainfall and low temperatures, so this year’s grape harvest will almost certainly be a low-sugar and late one. This will increase the risk of fungal diseases such as downy mildew and grey mould, which can be difficult to manage. Two of Hutchinsons’ senior agronomists, viticulture lead Chris Cooper and horticultural agronomist Rob Saunders, review the options open to growers to manage these challenging pathogens.

Wineries, on a day-to-day basis, are focused on their core purpose for being in business: making an exceptional bottle of wine. To this end, they have all the best systems needed already in place. They have an excellent approach to vineyard management, a sound selection process for raw materials and modern production management systems for producing that good bottle of wine. However, what happens once the wine is made and bottled?

With the UK’s climate shifting towards more extreme weather, growing blackcurrants is becoming increasingly challenging for sixth-generation farmer Nick Overy, whose family has been producing the crop under contract with Ribena for 30 years.