'If only every year was like this!' Shropshire's vineyards eyeing up a vintage year for county wines after dry summer
The summer of 2025 may go down in the record books as England's hottest ever summer, but the Mediterranean-style conditions mean the vines are bulging as the county's vineyards get ready to pick their grapes.
And if this year's long, dry summer has caused a headache for Shropshire's farmers, it's been a boon to the county's wine-growers - who are now set to celebrate a vintage crop.
Growers say the contrast with last year couldn’t be starker, with the dry weather prompting a significant revival for the county's vines after a "cool, wet, and disease-prone" growing season in 2024.
One vineyard celebrating a good year for the grapes is Rodington Vineyard, near Telford, which is owned by growers Ram Dass Chahal and Nirmala Devi, who planted their first vines in 2009.
Much of the day-to-day running of the family-owned business is handled by daughter Kiran, who says the warm, dry weather has provided ideal growing conditions for their eight acres of vines, which will be picked and sent off for pressing at Halfpenny Green near Bridgnorth over the next few weeks.
"If every year was like this it would be great! The wines this year are going to be fantastic," she said.
"It's been dry, which has really helped all the crops and it's helped the vines prosper this year. We've not seen any rot or mildew so it's looking good.
