Help & Advice from Bedfordshire's Wine Making Experts
Wine Making Seasons:
The best wine makers time their activities to coincide with those of the grapes. That's why we take our holidays in March and July when the grapes are budding and ripening respectively.
The guide below shows what fruit/vegetables are at their best for making wine each month.
January
- Oriental Fruits: figs and dates
- Barley
- Citrus: grapefruit
- Maize
- Dried Fruit: raisins and prunes
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February
Grapes: Bud Break
- Tinned Fruit: peach, nectarine
- Nuts: coffee or almond
- Citrus Fruits: orange, tangerine
- Parsnips
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March
- Carribean Fruits: bananas and pineapples
- Peaches
- Rice
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April
- Flowers: dandelion, gorse and primrose
- 'Bees' Wine (this is not made with honey, rather bees refers to the type of yeast used)
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May
Grapes: Vine Flowering
- Hedgerow Flowers: hawthorn, elderflower, nettle
- Mead
- Vanilla
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June
Grapes : Fruit Setting
- Currants: blackcurrant, redcurrant
- Gooseberries
- Herbs: parsley, sage
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July
Grapes : Veraison
- Cherries
- Flowers: honeysuckle, marigold
- Vegetables: marrow
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August
Grapes : Ripening
- Berries: strawberry, raspberry, plum
- Rose petals
- Root vegetables: carrots
- Green Fruits: gooseberry, greengage
- Ginger Beer
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| September
Grapes : Harvesting
- Berries: raspberry, blackberry, loganberry
- Sparkling Mead
- Apples & Pears
- Rose hips
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October
Grapes: Destemming
- Berries: hawthornberry, bilberry, mulberry
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November
- Berries: cranberry, sloe
- Sloe Gin
- Port
- Winter Vegetables: celery,ginger, parsnips
- Hops
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December
- Spices: Ginger, spiced beetroot
- Mulled Wine
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