Cheers! Halfpenny Green Vineyard enjoys bumper crop
The owner of the Halfpenny Green Wine Estate is celebrating a bumper crop of grapes and one of the top five harvests in the past 30 years.
Clive Vickers helped his father, Martin, to plant the vines in 1983 and they go into making white, red, rose and sparkling wines.
He said: "We have a really big crop despite the year starting off with frost in April and wet weather in May.
"August was also disappointing but in September the weather was good with lots of sunshine.
"We have a high yield and will be picking for four to five weeks.
"It has been an interesting year with a late start but September and October have seen high temperatures and sunshine.
"The crop should make about 100,000 bottles of wine when in an average year we would expect about 60,000 to 80,000 bottles.
"We have 15 different grape varieties and produce a big range of wines.
"These are available in our shop and restaurant on the site at Bobbington and in Waitrose and Aldi as well as independent merchants.
"Despite the poor start at the beginning of the years things have turned out pretty good.
"Taking all things into consideration I would say that the crop is in the top five of the past 30 years.
"People will have to wait for This vintage to be on the shelves from May next year."
