Roundup of 2024

We finished the year on a high with a busy Christmas, but perhaps the real highlight was the Christmas Fayre at Stowe. Our second year in this magnificent setting was as popular as we had hoped.

Looking back, we had a year of firsts - the first year we were open each Sunday, offering platters, for the months of July and August. We were lucky with the weather (something that could not be said for much of the year), and the days proved popular. It was the first year of regular talks to local groups, be they wine societies, horticultural societies, or perhaps Women’s Institute groups. It was also the first year we enlisted outside help replacing broken posts - a task we had always undertaken ourselves, but found (with advancing years!) this was more than we could now cope with.

It was, however, the second year that we took no harvest. The amount of rain through the summer and autumn meant both that there was a heavy mildew load, and that the grapes were few and did not ripen as we would have wished. We did not want to take the risk that they would produce a poor quality wine.

Here’s to 2025, and a successful year!