It’s September and harvest has begun here at Astley. It’s our busiest time of year because it also means the start of wine-making. So, we always delighted to welcome help from our lovely team of volunteers. Each year we welcome old friends and new friends to join us in the vineyard, harvesting our precious grapes.

The weather has been challenging this Summer. After a warm May and June, it’s been never-ending rain showers to dodge. We’ve worked hard to keep the grapes healthy by constant leaf stripping – this allows the sun and a flow of air to dry the grapes and help ripen them.

Overall, we’ll be busy with processing grapes & juice until the middle of November, and then it’s countdown to Christmas!

September & October are a special time of year for us, but we’re often too busy to see the experience from our volunteer’s point of view! It’s nice to see so many beautiful photos 🥰 A huge thank you to Pete Goddard for capturing these lovely images of harvest!