Harvest 2024 at Leonardslee Family Vineyards

A Year of Challenges, A Focus on Quality

The 2024 growing season has been one of the most challenging UK vintages since 2012. With cooler, wetter conditions prevailing, we’ve had to navigate one of the toughest growing seasons in recent memory. Starting in January, we've experienced over 1200mm of rain, with 235mm falling in September alone—the month we typically rely on for ripening. Additionally, we've seen 200 fewer sunlight hours compared to an average growing season, further complicating the path to optimum ripeness.

Many UK vineyards have struggled under the weight of these conditions, and while the pressure from fungal diseases has been high, we at Leonardslee Family Vineyards took early steps to mitigate these challenges. By opening our canopy early in the season, we made the most of the sunlight available and kept our vines healthy and disease-free.
This gave us the “factory” we needed to ripen our fruit despite the less-than-ideal conditions.

We also made careful decisions throughout the season, reducing crop load where necessary to ensure the fruit we brought in would reach the best possible ripeness.
As a result, while our estimated crop for 2024 will be around 75 tons—less than half
of last year’s bumper harvest of 175 tons—we are confident in the quality of the fruit
we’ve produced. This translates to approximately 55,000 bottles for the 2024 vintage, down from last year, but we believe that what we lack in quantity, we will more than makeup for in quality.

Our harvest began on Tuesday, 15th October, and if all continues to go well, we expect to have the crop safely in the cellar by the 25th.
The early signs are promising. Our fruit is healthy, and the first juices coming through are tasting excellent, with a similar analysis to the standout 2020 vintage.

2024 may have tested us, but we remain optimistic that this vintage will showcase the best of Leonardslee Family Vineyards—proving, once again, that even in the face of adversity, quality can triumph over quantity.