Harvest 2001 Report

Most English people have a habit of looking back over the past summer with feelings of disappointment. It could have been hotter. This year we had plenty of fine weather, and the vines were brought through the year without the problems of frost, excessive rain or drought. But this was a summer where the grapes just ripened slowly - the sun and temperatures were a little below average all summer. When the harvest approached, our analysis showed us to be about 2 weeks later than "normal". The first days picking of our early ripening Siegerrebe vines was a week behind last year (which was also considered a late year). Then we had the warmest October recorded since the 17th century, and things started to speed up. October finished with some glorious blue skies and bright sunshine.

The 2001 crop is the first official crop harvested after a full year of organic management. I don't know if that has a part to play, but our vines seem resilient to the wetter days, and seem this year to have produced particularly fine flavoured juices. Sugar levels have been good, although lower than the last 3 years. The 2001 wines have low acidities than previous years, and will produce softer wines which will be drinkable from an earlier age. The wines fermenting in tank show great concentration of flavour and beautiful aromas. This may be due to the low yields that we are seeing from our Horsmonden vineyard over the last 3 years. Actually 2001 is the largest crop picked at Davenport Vineyards since we started, but this is largely due to the increased production from our younger vines at Rotherfield.