Early Summer at The Weyborne Estate

Early summer has arrived with quiet intensity across The Weyborne Estate, transforming the vineyard almost daily as the growing season gathers pace across the South Downs.

Budburst is now well underway, and the vineyard has changed dramatically in recent weeks.

What only a short time ago felt still and tentative is now vibrant, green, and full of movement. The warm spring weather has accelerated vine growth.

The vineyard is now entering one of its most energetic phases of the year, where every day brings visible change and every decision begins to influence the character of the vintage still to come. Much of this stage of the season is defined by careful vineyard management and highly physical work amongst the vines.

One of the key tasks currently underway is wire positioning and lifting, an essential part of vine canopy management in the vineyard. As the young shoots grow rapidly upwards, Damian is currently carrying out wire adjustments across the estate, carefully lifting and repositioning the trellis system to support and guide the vines. This helps maintain structure, encourages healthy airflow, and ensures even sunlight exposure throughout the canopy as growth accelerates.

Alongside this, shoot selection continues steadily across the estate. Each vine is observed individually, with growth carefully managed to direct the plant’s energy into the strongest and most balanced shoots for the season ahead.

It is meticulous, hands-on vineyard work requiring patience, precision, and constant observation.

For Ben and Damian, this marks one of the most demanding periods of the growing season so far. Long days are spent walking the vineyard row by row, responding to the pace of growth as conditions shift rapidly in the early summer heat.

And it is not only the vines responding to the season.

Grass growth is also vigorous, creating constant competition within the vineyard and requiring ongoing management between the rows. At the same time, wildflowers are beginning to establish themselves across the estate, insects are returning, and the wider vineyard ecosystem is becoming increasingly active and alive.

There is something particularly exciting about this point in the season.

The vineyard is no longer waking up. It is fully in motion.

Every decision made now, every lifted wire, every selected shoot, every pass through the rows quietly shapes the balance, health, and potential of the vintage still unfolding before us.