Two Beacons Vineyard picks its largest harvest since 2018
A hot, dry summer pushed England's Herefordshire grower past its 2023 record, with enough Pinot Noir Précoce to force record green-harvesting.
Two Beacons Vineyard has picked its largest harvest since planting its first vines in 2018, with pickers still working the rows near Malvern as a hot, dry summer pushed yields past the previous record set in 2023.
The Colwall vineyard, in the shadow of the Malvern Hills in Herefordshire, brought its grapes in about a week later than in 2025, co-founder Ceri Phipps said, because of summer heatwaves that delayed ripening even as the season finished earlier than usual years. The same heat and dryness cut down on wasps, fruit flies and botrytis, the rot that thrives in damp autumns, which did more than anything else to push the volume up.
Co-founder Tim Dutton said the Pinot Noir Précoce crop came in so heavy that the team had to green-harvest a record amount, cutting bunches early so the fruit left on the vine could ripen fully rather than spreading the plant's energy too thin.
A Herefordshire vineyard barely a decade old picking record volumes is the clearest sign yet of where English growers think their advantage lies.
A first Blanc de Noir from the 2023 vintage
Dutton is expecting outstanding sparkling wine and very good still wine from the harvest, a confidence that fits a vineyard that already picked up three silver medals at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2026, for its 2024 Pinot Noir Précoce, 2024 Bacchus and 2022 Late Release Sparkling Rosé Pinot Noir. The estate is also about to release its first Blanc de Noir, a still white made entirely from Pinot Noir grapes picked in 2023.
Two Beacons has planted more than 16,000 vines since 2018 and added another 12,000 for the 2027 harvest, the kind of expansion that only makes sense if a grower believes England's warming summers are a trend rather than a run of lucky years. English sparkling wine has already found a market abroad, with Wiston Estate's bottles now served on Emirates flights.
England's gain is Champagne's loss this year
The contrast with France is pointed. France's 2026 grape harvest was its smallest in decades, while a Herefordshire vineyard barely a decade old is picking record volumes under the same warming climate that is stressing vineyards further south. Neither result proves much on its own, but together they are the clearest sign yet of where English growers think their advantage lies.
