Severe Frost Threatens English Vineyards

Winemakers across England are facing repeated bouts of severe frost that have hit vineyards in several regions in recent weeks during a critical stage of budburst, raising concerns about the size of the 2026 harvest and adding to already rising costs.

At Black Chalk in Hampshire, winemaker Zoë Driver said the season had been unusually difficult. “It’s feeling a little brutal this year,” she said in mid-May, adding that frost problems “started before Easter and are still going.” Jacob Leadley, who owns the winery and shares winemaking duties with Driver, said the business was already spending far more than planned on frost protection. “We’re about five times over our budgeted frost expenses,” he said.

The strain has not been limited to the vines. Leadley said the overnight work needed to protect the vineyard has been hard on staff. Black Chalk has been using 12 frost guards, which operate only down to a certain temperature, along with a FogDragon machine that releases a smoky protective mist behind a tractor. Leadley said the vineyard manager had been driving distances equal to a trip from Hampshire to Glasgow each night. The operation has also faced higher propane and diesel bills, costs he said have been moving “in the wrong direction for the last five years.”

In East Sussex, America Brewer, winemaker and owner of Oastbrook Estate, said the past few weeks were “probably the most significant frost event we’ve experienced since planting.” Oastbrook’s vineyards, planted in 2018, have shown uneven damage. Brewer said the worst-hit areas were localized frost pockets and unprotected sections of the vineyard, while some rows near woodland escaped with little or no damage.

To limit losses, Oastbrook has used infrared heaters, burning braziers and frost barriers. Brewer said those measures had helped somewhat but were not fully effective. The estate is still waiting to see how much fruit will survive through the season.

In Kent, Henry Warde, owner of Squerryes, said frost damage in 2026 had already been “the most severe we’ve seen since 2017.” Squerryes used protective sprays on its most vulnerable blocks, but Warde said vineyard location remained the key factor in frost defense. He noted that an air frost on April 24 affected parts of the estate that had not suffered damage since vines were planted in 2006.

Warde said he now hopes secondary shoots will help offset some of the yield loss expected this year. That hope is shared across much of English wine country, where growers are still assessing how much fruit will be lost after several cold nights at a time when young shoots are especially exposed.

Some producers have fared better because they invested early in protection systems. Stopham Vineyard in West Sussex installed a Plantex spraying system in 2021. Marie Davies, head of trade sales at the estate, said that for several years people had questioned whether the expense was worth it. “This year we’ve had to really use it,” she said.

Davies said owner and winemaking director Simon Woodhead had spent at least five or six nights switching on the system during the cold spell. So far, she said, the vines had remained “absolutely fine.” Even so, she cautioned that growers usually do not feel safe from frost until late May.

For Black Chalk, the cold weather comes with a longer-term tradeoff. Leadley said the estate’s vineyards sit at the bottom of a valley, which makes them more vulnerable to spring frost but also gives them an advantage later in the season because temperatures can run 2-3°C warmer than surrounding sites. That extra warmth helps ripen fruit and supports the style of wines Black Chalk wants to make.

Leadley pointed to that ripeness as one reason the winery continues to focus on vintage wines rather than reserve blends. The estate recently released the second vintage of its higher-tier wines, Paragon blanc de blancs and Inversion blanc de noirs, both from 2022. Leadley said Paragon uses Chardonnay fermented with an aromatic yeast strain and aged in foudres for balance and texture. Inversion relies largely on Pinot Noir from parcels planted with Burgundy’s 777 clone.

Whether this year’s weather will allow Black Chalk to produce those wines again in 2026 remains unclear. The winery lost its small crop in 2021 to frost and had to put all fruit into its core wines that year. Driver also recalled severe frosts affecting the first vintage of Paragon and Inversion in 2020.

Leadley said he knew from the start that English sparkling wine would involve seasonal risk. “We knew the risks when we started,” he said. “You get vintage variation but for us that has something more interesting to say than the consistency of reserve wines.”