The sight of grape pickers working in the sunshine could come straight from the wine producing regions of France. Instead this harvest was quietly taking place in an East Yorkshire hamlet, writes Natalie Murphy
THE whirring noise of the combines and the chugging of the tractor engines herald the arrival of the harvest in East Yorkshire.
But in one small field, this year's bounty is being collected by hand, with the chatter of the workers and distant bird song the only sounds to be heard.
The group is working in the sunlight of a bright Saturday morning, gathered together by Ian and Ann Sargent to pick the grapes in the vineyard they launched four years ago.
With the vines taking three years to mature, this is their second yield and they are hopeful it will match the success of their first vintage.
"We took a decision that we wanted to go into one of the high-quality wine schemes – PGI, which stands for protected geographical indication," says Ian, 50.
"What it means is, we send the wine away in bottle format, it gets critically analysed and taste tested and basically we got accepted into the wine scheme.
"It got straight through and we were absolutely bowled over to do that in year one and on the back of that we thought, well, let's have a go at one of the wine challenges."
They entered the UK Vineyard Association competition, where masters of wine carry out blind tasting, and were stunned to receive an award for each of their wines, one silver and two bronze.
"I was just so pleased that we did well," says Ann, 45.
"It's nice to get that recognition, it makes it all worthwhile."
With their only previous experience of wine being drinking it, the couple knew nothing about its production when they set-up Laurel Vines and Winery.
But they did do their research, starting with the land on which they grow the vines in Aike, a hamlet between Beverley and Driffield.
"One of the key things that we've got is a nice amount of chalk in the ground," says Ian, 50.
"The vines can go down to 30m, at this point they will only be about three or four foot down but when they are 20 years old, they will be much deeper.
"And the land is very clean, apart from the odd sheep it's not been used and, talking to some of the people in the village, it's been that way for the past 70 years."
After securing the land, they then had to decide which vines to grow.
"There is quite a decision making process to go through to get to a position where you know what wines you want to produce and what grape varieties you need," says Ian.
"It would be pointless us trying to plant something from the south of France such as Bordeaux or Beaujolais.
"We would never be able to do that here as we just don't get the number of sunlight hours.
"All of the vines we have got currently are German and Austrian varieties, three of which we are cropping now."
Beginning as little more than "twigs in the ground", as Ann describes them, after three years, the vines reach maturity, allowing grapes to be picked.
Before then, patience and perseverance is required in tending to the vines.
Pruning is done in the depths of mid-winter, usually January or February, and there is plenty of work to be done in the summer, too, including more pruning, spraying and "bud rubbing", to control the growth of new shoots.
It means the vines are being touched by hand sometimes as regularly as every other day, Ian says.
When their first pick finally came around last year, however, it did not disappoint.
"It was a brilliant year," says Ian.
"It really was perfect growing conditions and everything went in our favour.
"This year, we had a late frost just as the buds burst. It was only for a few hours but it went down to minus three, minus four and that nipped off those buds.
"They produce new ones but they are nowhere near as developed as the ones that were just sitting there waiting to burst.
"We had a fantastic growing season all the way up to the end of July and then August happened and it was just rain, rain and more rain, which really didn't help us, although it did make sure there was plenty of moisture in the ground and then September has been a decent month again."
It will be some time before Ann and Ian get to taste this year's vintage, with production, which is done onsite, taking about six months.
"The process is that the pickers pick the grapes off the vines, put them in containers and bring them here to be catalogued and weighed," says Ian, speaking in the production unit just yards from the field where sparkling silver machinery is waiting to be put into action.
"Then we have a machine that actually takes the grapes off the stem and then the whole grape is pumped into a computer controlled press.
"It goes into a hopper and we pump the juice into the vessels."
And as they harvest their second vintage, they hope to begin selling their first.
"We've had quite a bit of interest from restaurants and that is our primary route to market," says Ian.
"If we can get the restaurateurs to come and have a look at it, we would be only too pleased to see them and show them the process and the vines and everything else."
It's quite an achievement for the pair, who work with Ian's brother Neil at the family's Beverley-based business, Sargent Electrical Services.
And they are grateful for the fantastic support they have received from other UK growers and friends and family, including daughter Rebekah, 19, who is training to be a primary school teacher but helps out when she can.
The willingness of others to help is evident by the number of people who gave up their weekends to help with the harvest and from villagers who keep a keen eye on the new landscape – Ann says they often stop her to tell her how the vines are getting on after walks around the field.
Their first year of production gave them 800 bottles of wine with hopes for 2,500 from this year and, with ambitions to grow further, it seems the clink of glasses containing Laurel Wines could become a sound as familiar as the noise of the harvest.
"We're aiming for between ten and 15 acres and around about 15,000 vines," says Ian.
"We're not playing at it."
Visit laurel-vines.co.uk to find our more.
