Good news on grapevine in Last of the Summer Wine country

The balmy summer weather has provided perfect conditions for the grape vines at Holmfirth Vineyard to flourish. Four varieties of the fruit will be ripe for picking by hand next month and preparations for the annual operation have begun in earnest.

A team at the vineyard is examining the plants and pruning their leaves to allow maximise sunlight to reach the grapes in one last push to make this year’s growing season the most productive yet.

Alasdair McNab, the vineyard’s trainee winemaker, said: “It should be a good harvest. It was a late start because of snow on the ground earlier in the year but with the good weather we have had, it will be a far superior harvest this year compared to last.

“We get around 10,000 bottles out of a harvest and it’s been getting bigger every year, except for last year when the weather was bad.”

Four grape varieties are being grown, red Rondo and Regent grapes and white Seyval and Solaris grapes. They will be used to produce two rosés and a dry white wine. The Solaris variety has taken particularly well this time, Mr McNab said.

“A good harvest means we can sell to local restaurants and shops rather than keep it all back for tours and the restaurant. Last year there wasn’t enough grapes to sell outside of the business.”

Holmfirth Vineyard has been producing wine since 2009 under the ownership of husband and wife team Ian and Becky Sheveling. They have enjoyed three harvests since then and two years ago a restaurant was opened at the site in Woodhouse Lane, where visitors can enjoy glasses of their wine over dinner.