The 2015 harvest was, as predicted, lower than the vintage of 2016, coming in at the bottle equivalent of 5.06m bottles.
Barry Lewis, CEO of The United Kingdom Vineyards Association, said: “These figures illustrate the steady but strong growth of the industry, and 2015 is still the second highest volume recorded. The good news is that despite the lower volume, remains that the quality is looking to be very good and in line with industry predictions.”
Warmer weather picked up towards the autumn, which helped ripen the grapes up to harvest, but on average, producers harvested up to 10 days later than they would normally anticipate.
The average production taken over the last three years, shows the ongoing growth in production overall in the UK – averaging at 5.27m bottles per year, according to the report. This is said to be very much in line with predictions of growth and reflects the increased production from hectarage currently planted.
