Shaping the future of UK viticulture

This year’s “phenomenal vintage” will help UK winemaking “reset” after a difficult couple of years, viticultural expert James Dodson, founder and CEO of the UK’s leading vineyard services company VineWorks, has predicted.

James Dodson, who set the company up in 2006 and has since overseen the establishment of more than 300 vineyards containing more than five million vines, believes 2025 will prove to be a historic year for grape quality.

He is also confident that UK wine will continue on its upward trajectory despite the over-production that led to “a few tears” for some growers over the past two years. “It’s happened all over the world at some point,” James said. “We just have to get back to sensible levels of production, and that means maintaining yields at seven to nine tonnes a hectare by pruning and crop management, which will maintain quality and keep the price of fruit sustainable.”

With yields up 35% to 40% in 2023, James said growers faced increased costs turning the fruit into wine, leading to a “cash crunch”. In 2024 many tried to sell fruit to recoup some of that cost, but with more sellers than buyers the price collapsed.

But while VineWorks’ own brokering activities noted a drop in business and many growers struggled to find a home for their grapes, James insisted that it was “not a crisis, just an opportunity for an industry reset in terms of direction of travel”.

Stressing “the growth in UK wine continues”, he added that with the biggest cost pressure coming from vine husbandry, VineWorks continued to look at ways of reducing costs for its clients.

One environmental innovation is VineWorks’ Viti-Till, a strip tilling implement designed with German manufacturer Wagner to meet the regenerative agriculture demands of reducing cultivation by clearing a 50cm wide strip of land ready for planting. “Viti-Till also reduces ground preparation costs and is better for the soil and the environment as it only removes the grass or cover crop from the area to be planted,” explained James. “That reduces carbon and moisture loss and preserves the soil structure.”

Viti-Till was the brainchild of head of establishment Will Mower and uses GPS to sync with the vine planting machine. It has already proved successful on several sites, including at Plumpton College, where it was used in the establishment of the new vineyard in 2025.

The East Sussex-based company is also working on an exciting research project which is grafting UK budwood onto rootstocks imported from France to create vines for future expansion. “It’s a complex process but will allow existing vineyards to buy vines for infilling using their own budwood or plant expansion projects, reducing the issues with importing vines from Europe,” said James.

“We are excited about the potential of the project, which is in the later stage of development. We are working on grafting orders for 2027 for bespoke vines so are keen to talk to growers who are interested in British vines that originate from their vineyards.”

“We are seeing continued interest in vineyard establishment, but we are also keen to make sure new entrants to the industry have a clear understanding of the market,” James said. “We try to ensure new vineyards have a properly developed business plan. We don’t want to see vineyards for vineyards’ sake; growers need to have thought carefully about the marketing and selling aspects of their business.”

The company is seeing considerable growth in demand for its management services packages, with vineyards, estates and farms outsourcing their husbandry in order to streamline operations and reduce costs. VineWorks’ management services are led by Tom Reid, who returned to VineWorks after a year in New Zealand as head of vineyard services at the end of 2024.

Another new member of the team is George O’Leary-Quinn, who joined VineWorks to deliver tractor-based and mechanical operations. George is responsible for VineWorks’ new quad-based herbicide service which allows herbicide and liquid nutrition to be delivered more effectively to smaller areas.

The company’s Gregoire GL7 machine harvester was in increasing demand in 2025, picking four times the quantity of grapes for clients as in 2024. The Gregoire is the only one of its kind in the UK. The grapes are collected in a trailer that is specially adapted to separate and contain the free-run juice from the berries, minimising waste and allowing the winemaker to use both components in the winemaking process.

While UK growers have enjoyed a few frost-free years recently, James’ message is clear: “Don’t relax.” As the UK distributor for the infrared-based Frolight Frost Systems, the company will be demonstrating the technology at the Vineyard & Winery Show on 19 November at the Kent Showground and is planning a number of demonstration days in the new year.

The VineWorks online shop continues to offer a comprehensive range of supplies, from vine plants and wire to stakes, guards, shears and everything in between, with the team taking pride in turning orders around as swiftly as possible.

VineWorks also made 1,600 bottles of its own ‘garagiste’ style Chardonnay from grapes harvested in 2023. Barrel-fermented, the wine, named Unit 20 after the warehouse in which it is stored, will be launched at the Vineyard & Winery Show. Senior viticulturist Charles Martin played a lead role in its creation, having previously owned his own vineyard in France for many years.

VineWorks is also planning to make more wine from this season’s “historic vintage in terms of quality and essentially disease-free grapes”, in James’ words. “This will be remembered as one of the great vintages for the UK,” he added.

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