A little update on 2012 in Kent so far

It seems like every year in England is extraordinary in some way; some month or other is always the hottest, or the coldest, or the wettest in living memory. Last year, it was a freakishly cold August. This year, after one of the warmest Marches ever, we had the wettest April for 100 years and an abject May-June period (save for one hot week). It has been winter and summer on and off (although mostly winter), which, I suppose, added together gives you something like spring. Here are the vines I look after in Kent last weekend (the 11th June 2012)


The wind over the last few weeks has really tested the new shoots, and together with some very heavy rain there is a small amount of bruising at the tips. Not too much to worry about, though - last year we had hail at the beginning of June that heavily bruised the vines and damaged early flowers. 2012 has got off to a hairy start, though without the warm March and hot week during May we would be behind schedule enough to be worrying about having enough growing season left...
Just to get an idea of the relative progress this year, here are the vines at the same stage of maturity in 2011, almost a full month earlier on the 15th May 2011


We had a scorchingly dry start to the year - in fact, by the time of fruit set, I was worried about drought stress. The vines were will in flower by the end of the 1st week of June.
Finally, here is a picture of them just coming into flower on the 26th June 2010. This is about where I expect them to be by the end of June this year. Flowering at the end of June is what we want to stand the best chance of avoiding wet/cold/windy conditions during fruit set. If the fruit sets, there will be wine (unlike last year...)!