Fantastic grape harvest

Hello Gardenerscorner.co.uk members

I wanted to show off our first proper grape harvest. We have had the vine for maybe 10 years but only this last year have we really tried to get a harvest from it. We watched a half dozen vine pruning videos in winter and purchased nylon bags to protect the fruit. In previous years we have had a few bunches but it would all be devoured by blackbirds long before they were ripe. I had only ever known it as a small sour grape.

But this year, big success!
Ive taken the majority off, and including the bunches weve eaten and the few I left up for later fresh eating, I weighed everything to about 3.5kg of fruit. Chuffed



This year we have become comfortable brewing beer so we decided to have a go at wine. The bulk of the harvest has been crushed and filtered and is ready to be fermented using "d47" wine yeast we got from the home brew shop.
Itll be ready by next harvest maybe

Here is the vine



Thanks for reading. Has anyone else here had a great 2025 grape harvest?

 

Wonderful crop @Adam I ! Was it sold as an eating grape or specifically for wine?

 

For eating but I cant remember the name. Its tasty and sweet but a bit sour too. and seedless

 

A good crop, looks like my Lakemont.

I've got a few this year but strangely enough I have a couple of really good bunches on the black hamburg, its usually pretty poor.

I've been eating the muscat bleu as I walk past so not many of them left now.

The weather has been ideal this year.

 

Congratulations @Adam I
How much wine do you get approximately from this 3.5kg bundle?

 

I made wine from grapes on a couple of occasions and I seem to remember it was something like 12lbs of grapes to a gallon.

I sold my wine making stuff last week.

 

I do not have a vine, always wanted one. I remember a grape we used to buy to eat called Canon Hall. Delicious, I think it is probably an indoor variety.
I have a gallon of scrumpy fermenting at the moment, made from the windfalls from my apple tree. I have no idea what it will be like as the best cider should be made from a mix of apple varieties.

 

I think maybe 2 and a half litres. hard to tell as my fermenters first measurement is 5 litres

 

The problem with grape wine, as the homemade wine people say, is that you don't add water, unlike a lot of wine recipes.
You can add raisins or sultanas to allow you to bring it up to 5 litres.
Ir you can get concentrated grape juice.

 

It has indeed been a very good year for grapes as well as other fruit and berries.

We saw an escapee grapevine yesterday, growing through a chain link fence and full of mature, purple fruit. Quite exotic up here!

I have told this one before, but it's too juicy tale not to re-tell

After the wars, my grandfather made his own alcohol, using whatever fruit or other vegetable stuff was available. My grandmother disapproved, and instead made healthy juice from the blackcurrants from their summer cottage.

The story doesn't tell if the bottles or ingredients got mixed up, but the end result was my grandparents returning from work to their ground floor flat in Helsinki to find police, ambulance and all the neighbours peeking through their window to see the blood splattered walls in the room where gunshots had been heard.

The blackcurrant juice had fermented and exploded in the bottles.

 

Our harvest wasn't so good this year because of the very dry weather. However harvested enough for 3 demijons that are fermenting now.

 

Wow 3 demijons full. Thatll keep you going!

 

You all seem to be picking your grapes early, I don't think the vineyards around here start picking until October.

 

@pete agree a very early grape harvest this year.