After months of nurturing our vines through pruning, training and careful vineyard management, the moment has finally arrived. The 2026 grape harvest is underway at Helme Edge Vineyard, with our Solaris grapes reaching optimum ripeness.
Harvest is the high point of the viticulture year, when all the work carried out in our Yorkshire vineyard finally comes to fruition in bunches of ripe grapes ready to be transformed into wine.
An Exceptional Growing Season in Yorkshire
The weather has been especially kind throughout the 2026 growing season. We escaped troublesome late frosts, while long spells of warm and very warm weather pushed the vines several weeks ahead of their normal development.
The summer drought proved challenging for some UK vineyards, particularly those growing on lighter, sandy soils where irrigation was sometimes required. At Helme Edge Vineyard, our water-retentive clay subsoil proved particularly valuable. It provided a natural reservoir of moisture that could be reached by the deep roots of our mature vines, helping the grapes continue to develop during the prolonged dry weather.
Waiting for the Perfect Time to Harvest
The days leading up to the grape harvest always bring a certain amount of nervousness. After nurturing the vines for an entire growing season, there is still plenty that can go wrong before the grapes are safely picked.
Adverse weather is an obvious concern, but we also have to contend with grape-hungry birds, sugar-loving wasps and the occasional marauding roe deer. Fungal disease can also become a greater risk as the grapes ripen and their sugar levels increase.
Fortunately, none of these potential hazards caused us significant problems this year and we were rewarded with a good yield of clean, ripe Solaris grapes.
The 2026 crop was significantly larger than our 2025 harvest because many more of our vines have now reached maturity and produced their first substantial crop.
40 Pickers and One Yorkshire Grape Harvest
For harvest day we assembled a team of around 40 pickers, who quickly got to work filling crates with bunches of ripe Solaris grapes.
Most of our harvest team were family and friends, joined by some of our frequent vineyard visitors who had volunteered to experience grape picking for themselves. With so many willing hands, the harvest was completed by 1.15pm, leaving everyone free to enjoy a well-earned lunch accompanied by Helme Edge wine at the vineyard house.
It is one of those special days when the family, friends and visitors who have supported our Yorkshire vineyard can come together and play a direct part in producing the next vintage.
From Yorkshire Grapes to Solaris Wine
With the picking complete, the grapes were loaded into a large van ready for their journey to our winemaker at Halfpenny Green near Wolverhampton the following morning.
There, our Yorkshire-grown Solaris grapes will be vinified to create our 2026 still Solaris wine, completing another important stage in the journey from vine to bottle.
For our family-run vineyard, harvest is always a satisfying moment. Months of work among the vines have been captured in those crates of ripe grapes, and now we wait to discover what character the exceptional 2026 growing season will bring to our next Helme Edge Solaris.
