Looking Back on 2025 at Davenport Vineyards
- Will Davenport
- Jan 5
- 3 min read
As we step into 2026, we’re taking a moment to look back on 2025 — and what a year it was. A year of firsts, achievements, and a great deal of hard work, made possible by our incredible team, our friends, suppliers, and our local community.
Celebrating excellence
Our vineyard team’s care and expertise were recognised back in March when they won the WineGB Pruning Competition. It was a proud moment, highlighting the skill, patience and attention to detail that go into every vine we tend.
Award-winning wines
2025 was an exciting year of awards for Davenport!
We received Gold, Silver and Bronze at the WineGB Awards for Limney Estate Sparkling Wine 2019 (Gold), Redmoors Pinot Noir (Silver) and Ortega (Bronze).
Our Limney Estate Sparkling Wine was also Highly Commended in the 2025 BOOM Awards.
These accolades are a wonderful recognition of the care and dedication that go into every bottle we make.
Sharing experiences and fresh beginnings
We launched our new website alongside refreshed branding, creating a digital home that better reflects the warmth, passion and thoughtfulness behind our wines.
We also welcomed our friends from NobelRot for a harvest tour and tasting — a brilliant day spent sharing the vineyard, discussing winemaking, and celebrating the art and science of viticulture.
Community connections
In the orchards, we were delighted to host
The Felix Project for an apple harvest.
Their energy brought the orchard to life, and it was wonderful to know our fruit went on to support people in need across the capital.
An exceptional harvest
After a record-breaking hot UK summer, 2025 delivered an exceptional harvest at Davenport Vineyards. With no spring frost, low rainfall and plenty of sunshine, conditions were ideal — although growing grapes remains a full-time job, even in a good year.
Harvest began on 2nd September, around ten days earlier than average, yet the fruit was noticeably riper than in recent years. Our Redmoors site, now well established, produced its biggest harvest to date, while our Chardonnay once again delivered beautifully balanced, high-quality fruit. In total, we picked just under 50 tonnes (49,594kg) of organic grapes.
It was our second harvest in the new winery, and was supported by a brilliant local picking team whose hard work and good humour made the harvest both productive and joyful.
But not every site was straightforward. Our vines at Limney Farm were not cropped after damage caused by fallow deer earlier in the season — a reminder that farming always carries its challenges.
By early November, all the wines had finished fermentation and we are already tasting real depth and character in the 2025 vintage. Our 2025 Pet Nat is bottled and resting, ready for release this spring.
In the winery we introduced a new disgorging machine, improving efficiency and the consistency of our wines, and we pressed our very first apple juice — capturing the freshness of our orchard in bottle for the first time.
Opening our doors
2025 marked an exciting new chapter as we opened our on-site shop and welcomed the public for the first time, allowing visitors to taste and take-home Davenport wines directly from the vineyard.
We also teamed up with HoVEC to host their Christmas Market — a festive way to welcome the community and showcase the vineyard ahead of opening.
Regeneration and history
We installed 160 solar panels on the roof of the new winery, generating more electricity than we use across the year — another step in our commitment to regenerative and sustainable practices.
Refurbishment of the Oasthouse roof at Hazel Street Farm was completed, with internal renovations also underway, this now provides a cosy home for one of our team.
Looking forward
In 2026, we’ll be planting more vines and introducing new varieties as we continue to build for the future.
In the winery, we’re looking forward to welcoming visitors for tours and tastings, and we’re exploring the possibility of opening a wine bar one evening a week for the first time.
We’re also proud that Will Davenport will be speaking at the Oxford Real Farming Conference in January, sharing our journey from conventional to regenerative and organic viticulture — a conversation close to our hearts.
From all of us at Davenport Vineyards, thank you for being part of our 2025 journey.
We look forward to sharing more wines, experiences and memories with you in 2026 — whether at the vineyard, on a tour or tasting, or over a glass of wine at the winery.