Harrow & Hope

The single vineyard sits on an ancient Thames gravel terrace. Being quite central and away from the coast the vineyard experiences high summer day temperatures with cooler nights that preserve precious acidity. Grown, picked and expertly blended by the same team on the same site, each glass of Harrow & Hope is a tribute to traditional method viticulture and winemaking, to the unique characteristics of Marlow and to the spirit of adventure.

2021 vintage report

Obviously a difficult year and especially tough  considering we’re in organic conversion, but ultimately I’m very happy with how it all turned out. Yields were very close to average at 7.5t/Ha and although sugars were down, flavours seemed good, if delicate, and acids were much more balanced than we’ve had in similar years in the past. Maybe vine age helping. Disease was dominated by downy, and in July I feared the worst but having invested in a new recycling sprayer we could make the copper go further and coverage was really good. We also employed some biodynamic preps such as nettle and willow which I think helped build some natural resistance.  Botrytis was not really an issue so we hung it out as long as we could. Probably too early to say what cuvees we’ll produce but it’s all still to play for. And luckily I kept some red from 2020 so we should also be able to do Rose!!!

So overall it has given us much more confidence that our viticultural direction is working and we now have no excuses not to make it work.