Stanlake Park Wine Estate to launch a new wine after extreme weather produces huge harvest

Despite a summer of weather highs and lows, it has been a bumper year for growing grapes in the UK.

Vineyards up and down the country, especially Twyford’s Stanlake Park Wine Estate, have hauled in huge harvests with the mixture of warm months and wet weeks bringing in double the amount of produce.

General manager Natalia Pezzone said that although everything ended up perfectly, she and husband and viticulturalist Nico Centonze, were initially worried.

“We had this very dry and warm June and it was very good for the plant as it is in a phase that needs warmth so the flowers convert into future grapes and then in July it rained a lot – I think it was one of the wettest Julys on record.

“It was kind of the same in August although we had some spells of sun and warm weather, and we were a bit worried because we needed more heat and thought that it was going to be a year of a lot of good grapes but not good quality and then in September those ten days when it was above 30 degrees and was so sunny - some of the grapes actually burned which is unusual in England – but that last bit of sun actually ripened the grapes so we ended up with a very big crop, probably double last year’s,” she said.

So much so that the pickers have had to call in favours and ask others to join them to collect from the estate’s 10,000 vines.

“On Sunday (September 24) we had already picked the same amount of grapes as last year and we are halfway through so anything else we get is a bonus,” said Natalia.

This additional crop will make almost double the amount of wine that the estate produces.

“We normally make between 30-35,000 bottles a year. I think this year if everything continues as it is now we are going to make around 55-60,000 bottles,” said Natalia. Across the Continent, there are ‘rivers of wine’ being poured away in places like Portugal. Here, however, overproduction is a good thing.

“In England it is not a problem to make too many bottles because you never know what kind of year you are going to have next year. It could be that we get a frost next year (it happened to us in May 2020 where it got to -5 and we lost 40 per cent of production that year).”

Despite the ever constant weather worry, the UK’s wine industry is currently exploding Twyford’s 130-acre Stanlake Park is one of 949 vineyards, more than double the amount that existed five years ago.

“It is a boom market, a boom business,” Natalia explained. “There are a lot of people putting up vineyards - and it’s not just English people. There’s a lot of Champagne houses and French producers who, due to climate change, know it is going to get too hot in France so in view for the future they are buying land in England or in the north.

“In a 100 years’ time we might be making wine only in the north of the northern hemisphere as the south of the northern hemisphere will be too hot, which is terrible. Puglia, in Italy, where my husband is from and has vineyards, is supposed to be a desert in a hundred years’ time. That’s how bad it is.”

Since meeting, the wine making couple have travelled the world, managing vineyards from Italy to Bordeax to Romania, before finding an opportunity to make a difference at Stanlake Park in 2019.

Almost overnight they transformed the one-dimensional offering into a multifaceted destination with a wine bar, wine tours and weddings. Quite often, all three events take place at the same time in different parts of the estate.

“On a Saturday we might have a wedding and 100 people doing wine tours and people popping in for the wine bar,” Natalia said.

Another reason for the new interest at Stanlake Park is the Elizabeth Line bringing in more people from out of the area.

“Last year we had 7,000 people doing the tours and I reckon this year it is going to be even more. We are ten minutes’ walk from Twyford Station and then 30 minutes to Paddington and that brings us a lot of people from London and across the country because normally vineyards and wineries are a bit hidden and rural and to get there you need to spend money on taxis and you can drive but not drink so what’s the point? So you can come here drink and catch the train.”

Once harvest is complete, Natalia and Nico will work towards adding a new product to their award-winning list of reds, whites, rosé and sparkling wines – and it will have little or no alcohol.

“There is a massive trend in the world and a lot of people, especially with young people, who want to drink less or ‘better’.

“Given that we have so many grapes this year we are going try to launch a low alcohol wine next year. It is going to be a nice product made with pinot noir grapes.

“Wines like port or sherry are not popular anymore because they are 20 per cent alcohol whereas English wine has the advantage of being naturally lower in alcohol than counterparts in France, Italy or Portugal. So if you are trying to drink less alcohol English wine is a good idea.”

Despite a summer of weather highs and lows, it has been a bumper year for growing grapes in the UK.

Vineyards up and down the country, especially Twyford’s Stanlake Park Wine Estate, have hauled in huge harvests with the mixture of warm months and wet weeks bringing in double the amount of produce.

General manager Natalia Pezzone said that although everything ended up perfectly, she and husband and viticulturalist Nico Centonze, were initially worried.

“We had this very dry and warm June and it was very good for the plant as it is in a phase that needs warmth so the flowers convert into future grapes and then in July it rained a lot – I think it was one of the wettest Julys on record.

“It was kind of the same in August although we had some spells of sun and warm weather.

“We were a bit worried because we needed more heat and thought that it was going to be a year of a lot of good grapes but not good quality and then in September those ten days when it was above 30 degrees and was so sunny - some of the grapes actually burned which is unusual in England.

“But that last bit of sun actually ripened the grapes so we ended up with a very big crop, probably double last year’s,” she said.

So much so that the pickers have had to call in favours and ask others to join them to collect from the estate’s 10,000 vines.

“On Sunday (September 24) we had already picked the same amount of grapes as last year and we are halfway through so anything else we get is a bonus,” said Natalia.

This additional crop will make almost double the amount of wine that the estate produces.

“We normally make between 30 to 35,000 bottles a year. I think this year if everything continues as it is now we are going to make around 55 to 60,000 bottles,” said Natalia.

Across the Continent, there are ‘rivers of wine’ being poured away in places like Portugal. Here, however, overproduction is a good thing.

“In England it is not a problem to make too many bottles because you never know what kind of year you are going to have next year.

“It could be that we get a frost next year (it happened to us in May 2020 where it got to -5 and we lost 40 per cent of production that year).”

Despite the ever constant weather worry, the UK’s wine industry is currently exploding.

Twyford’s 130-acre Stanlake Park is one of 949 vineyards, more than double the amount that existed five years ago.

“It is a boom market, a boom business,” Natalia explained.

“There are a lot of people putting up vineyards - and it’s not just English people. There’s a lot of Champagne houses and French producers who, due to climate change, know it is going to get too hot in France so in view for the future they are buying land in England or in the north.

“In a 100 years’ time we might be making wine only in the north of the northern hemisphere as the south of the northern hemisphere will be too hot, which is terrible. Puglia, in Italy, where my husband is from and has vineyards, is supposed to be a desert in a hundred years’ time. That’s how bad it is.”

Since meeting, the wine making couple have travelled the world, managing vineyards from Italy to Bordeax to Romania, before finding an opportunity to make a difference at Stanlake Park in 2019.

Almost overnight they transformed the one-dimensional offering into a multifaceted destination with a wine bar, wine tours and weddings. Quite often, all three events take place at the same time in different parts of the estate.

“On a Saturday we might have a wedding and 100 people doing wine tours and people popping in for the wine bar,” Natalia said.

Another reason for the new interest at Stanlake Park is the Elizabeth line bringing in more people from out of the area.

“Last year we had 7,000 people doing the tours and I reckon this year it is going to be even more.

“We are literally ten minutes’ walk from Twyford Station and then 30 minutes to Liverpool Street and that brings us a lot of people from London and across the country.

“Normally vineyards and wineries are a bit hidden and rural and to get there you need to spend money on taxis and you can drive but not drink so what’s the point? So you can come here drink and catch the train.”

Once harvest is complete, Natalia and Nico will work towards adding a new product to their award-winning list of reds, whites, rosé and sparkling wines – and it will have little or no alcohol.

“There is a massive trend in the world and a lot of people, especially with young people, who want to drink less or ‘better’. Given that we have so many grapes this year we are going try to launch a low alcohol wine next year.”