V.6: The Year Everything Clicked
- info021599
- Oct 15
- 5 min read
We sit down with Jacob Leadley (CEO & Winemaker), Zoë Driver (Winemaker), and Gwil Cooper (Vineyard Manager) to talk about this year’s growing season, a bit of harvest chaos, and what we can expect from V.6 (the 6th harvest at Black Chalk). Spoiler alert...it's going to be a good one!
A dream in the vines
If you ask winemaker Zoë Driver to sum up 2025’s growing season, she doesn’t hesitate.
“Pretty perfect, to be honest! No frost, perfect flowering, a warm, dry summer, no disease and grapes riper than I’ve ever seen in my 10 years of winemaking.”
Dreamy stuff. But it wasn't total plain sailing for this year's growing season. As Vineyard Manager Gwil recalls. "We kicked things off with eleven frost protection nights during bud burst, that's pretty intense! That meant a lot of late nights and early mornings keeping the vines safe." Spring is always tense here in our frost-prone corner of Hampshire, but we escaped with barely any damage, allowing the team to breath a huge sigh of relief.
CEO and Winemaker, Jacob adds:
"The dry, warm weather and a few heatwaves really helped the vines along. Early flowering was fantastic, disease pressure stayed low, and by early July we were looking at what could’ve been a record early harvest. Sure, late summer was a bit more mixed, but it didn’t undo all that goodness. We kicked off picking on 12th September with sky high sugars and perfect acidity."
An early harvest and sweet surprises
When the harvest arrived, it did so in a hurry!
“We’d usually start picking in early October," says Jacob, "so a September start is a big deal. The sugars were exceptional for the time of year though, we were even picking early to keep potential alcohol levels low enough for sparkling....honestly, it's a good problem to have!”
Zoë agrees. "The sugars were through the roof! Managing that has been key, but honestly, the fruit quality has blown me away.” In the vineyard, Gwil couldn’t be happier with how the team handled the curveball. "It threw us a bit, harvest always comes faster than you think! But the pickers did a fantastic job, and the vineyard team really found their rhythm."
The fruit of their labour
So how did the fruit look? In a word: spectacular! We asked the team to pick out a few highlights.
"I can honestly say I’ve never seen fruit like this in England," Zoë says, "if I had to pick favourites, the Pinot Meunier, clones 977 and 978 particularly, really shone in the winery."
This is Vineyard Manager Gwil's first harvest at Black Chalk, and one that did not disappoint him.
“I was grinning the whole time we were loading the Chardonnay, particularly the Upper Levels clones, just amazing fruit.”
Of course, our top quality Upper Levels Chardonnay goes into our premium, limited release sparkling wine, Paragon. The 2020 vintage was a big hit, scoring 95 points from Jamie Goode, so we’ve got high hopes that the 2025 release will be even better!
Jacob concurs, "oh, the Chardonnay is especially good. it's a real Chardonnay year. We’re honestly just lucky to be making wine in England right now and it's hard to pick out specifics when all the fruit was such high quality. The usual suspects though, Pinot Noir clones 777, 521, and 779 look fantastic, and the Meunier...well that's going to provide us some great structure this year."
A moment of chaos?
For all its beauty, this vintage wasn’t without its moments of panic. Zoë laughs, “key staff were on holiday, no pickers around, the winery wasn’t prepped, and our new tanks hadn't arrived. It was intense...yeah a bit of a mad, stressful week to get ready before the first fruit came in, but we got there!”
Even Gwil, ever calm, admits the early start took some adjusting, particularly with a new team member who'd only just started!
“It was a real test for the vineyard team, especially with our new Vineyard Assistant, Leah. She jumped straight in at the deep end. We had to become a slick, coordinated team overnight. A great challenge for both of us, and that turned out to be one of the most rewarding parts of the season.”
Jacob remembers that stress vividly. "Harvest is always stressful, but when you have a very good year the pressure is on in a different way," he says, "we were expecting a large harvest and had bought new tanks to accommodate this, but the timing of the delivery of those new tanks was definitely nerve-wracking. They were due for late September, perfect in a normal year! So it took some planning to ensure we had enough space to keep pressing until they arrived from Croatia. When they finally did, every single one was full within the week!”
Teamwork, juice and joy
Handling more fruit than ever meant calling in extra hands and keeping everyone fuelled with plenty of hot lunches! From early bunch samples, we knew a bumper crop was on the way, so it was all systems go: more planning, more people, more tanks and more work!
"Yes, it’s been hard work, but we've got a 10/10 team who pulled it together and nailed it," says Zoë. "It’s been the biggest harvest we’ve ever had,” adds Jacob, “lots of long days, but also lots of laughter. You need that balance.”
And when it came to favourite moments, everyone had one thing in common: joy.
“Tasting both the juice straight out the press and all the ferments has been nothing short of joyous this year - every single thing excites me, we have such great parcels to play with at blending.” Says Zoë.
Jacob: "Same here. Tasting those early base wines, I'm excited by the potential. But as always my favourite times at harvest are the lunches, sitting sharing food and wine and taking a well earned break with the team!"
Gwil agrees: "The times we had as a whole team together were definitely the highlight. During the year, the vineyard and winery teams can feel fragmented but at harvest we come together, its a fulfilling time where both teams work as one..and we had a lot of fun together!"
A vintage to watch
So, what can we expect from the Black Chalk V.6 wines? The whole team are in agreement. “Some absolutely banging wines,” says Zoë, with everyone laughing. This year's fruit will undoubtedly make some exceptional wines and the seemingly never ending harvest will have paid off.
“This is the most complete growing season I’ve ever seen," says Jacob, "the flavour profiles, the structure, the balance. Everything just clicked. As winemakers, we are spoilt!”
“Yes, this harvest has been a marathon,” Zoë admits. “Over a month of long hours and no days off. Physically and mentally tough, but absolutely worth it. There'll be some great wines for sure, maybe even a few new projects…watch this space! ”
The wines from this vintage are going to be something special, not just for us, but for English wine as a whole. What an exciting time to be part of this fantastic industry!
