Harvest 2026 - when the juice is worth the squeeze.

That time of the year has come again, the leaves start to change their shade, the nights become cooler, the days get a little bit shorter and the camellias start to bloom. With the changing of the seasons comes a time of hope, reflection and excitement as our friends in the wine growing regions are busy harvesting their grapes for a year of wine making. This season, the grapes have been enjoyed a very warm summer with sporadic rainfall and very mild overnight temperatures. These sorts of years produce wines that have higher sugar levels which mean a higher alcohol level and stronger wine. That sounds like a good reason to keep an eye out for when 2026 vintages are available, it sounds like a good vintage!  We are expecting that our wine suppliers will have an abundant harvest and we are very excited to see what lies ahead for their adventurous wine making this year.  

Harvesting begins usually in late summer and flows into Autumn, depending on the the latitude and climate of the grape growing region. Most of our wine growers are in the mid latitudes, meaning that they are well and truly in the thick of the harvest now. The harvest process itself can involve machinery but our wine makers hand harvest most of their grapes. This is much more 'hands on' if you pardon the pun and it takes a lot of planning to ensure the grapes are not damaged in the process. The grapes are picked during the early morning when the temperatures are milder. The hand picking process ensures that only the best grapes are picked, with the less desirable ones left on the vine, which ensures less disease risk or intervention at the wine making stage. Our grape growers and wine makers are all mostly powered by solar and renewable energy too meaning that harvest process doesn’t involve plumes of diesel exhaust and the grapes are much happier that way.  

As a proud stockist of organic and biodynamic wines, we know that there are a few added layers, or rather, different layers in the grape harvesting and growing process as compared to the larger scale non organic grape growers. Our wine growers never use pesticides and the nutrition for the vines comes from the soil and organic matter, without adding any artificial fertilisers. This can make the wine game a little more challenging but it means that the wine is made without polluting the land and waterways and the end product is free from chemical interference, which to me, means it tastes that much better knowing it is grown so thoughtfully. Thoughtful wine is good wine 😉 Biodynamic wine is another added layer where harvesting is actually scheduled based on lunar and cosmic rhythms. Sounds a bit complicated,  that why we leave it to the experts and the juice is definitely worth the squeeze, because Biodynamic wines are brilliant! All our of wines at Gourmet and Green are Organic, and we stock Rosnay and Lowe wines which are both organic and biodynamic and are delicious, you should see for yourself.  

Check out these cool video's from Rosnay wines that shows you some of the processes involved in the harvesting season.