WINEGB CELEBRATES THE START OF THE GROWING SEASON WITH PUBLICATION OF 2025 HARVEST REPORT AND NEW GREEN BOOK
As vineyards across the British Isles celebrate the start of the growing season, WineGB has published two of its annual essential key guides: the 2025 Harvest Report and the new and revised 2026 Green Book. These launch today along with the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) harvest statistics confirming WineGB’s results.
The 2025 UK Harvest Report, authored by Stephen Skelton MW uses data collected from the WineGB Harvest Yield Survey 2025 and other cited sources, with insights and analysis by WineGB.
2025 really was an exceptional year, and for all the right reasons. An early and dry spring brought the vines into leaf early and the really extraordinary hot weather in June and July, when the south of the country experienced four separate official ‘heatwaves’, set the scene for the earliest and ripest grape harvest ever seen in the British Isles.
UK production in 2025, recorded a +39% harvest increase compared to 2024 and this was due to favourable weather conditions and lack of significant disease. Most importantly, the UK wine production quality indicators from the 2025 report illustrate the ripeness and quality of the fruit being picked.
Growing Degree Days (GDD) in 2025 were 1051 compared to the 5 year average of 1008. Average potential alcohol levels achieved were also up from 9.47% (2024 & 1o year average) to 10.48%, and tartaric acid levels decreased from 10.47g/l (10-year average) to 10.22 g/l.
The WineGB Wine Technical Group has called this a mast year and we anticipate some exceptional wines. Several grape varieties performed particularly well; Bacchus produced 9.5 t/ha compared to the 5 year average of 6.75 t/ha, Solaris was up from 4.20 t/ha (5 year average) to 7.20 t/ha and Pinot Noir up from 5.79 t/ha (5 year average) to 5.90 t/ha.
Today the FSA also publishes its 2025 UK wine production data, revealing an exceptional year for English and Welsh wine, with total production rising by 55% compared to 2024. Its figures show that 124,377 hectolitres of wine — equivalent to over 16.5 million bottles — were produced across the UK in 2025.
The 2026 edition of the WineGB annual Green Book contains extensive information about products that can be used in the UK on wine grapes and everything around spraying, legislation and guidelines for the safe and effective usage of plant protection products.
This is an essential guide is produced by WineGB’s Viticulture Working Group alongside essential advice from Horticultural Agronomist Will Robinson from Hutchinsons, Horticulture Crop Protection (HCP), with great help from Dr Joanna McTique, Crop Protection Scientist at HCP.
Available exclusively to grower and producer members, the Harvest Report and Green Book are essential resources for anyone involved in UK viticulture and available via the WineGB Knowledge Hub.
Nicola Bates, CEO of WineGB comments: “We take great optimism from scale of the harvest and most importantly the fantastic quality of fruit we are now producing. These results recognise the hard work and efforts of our growers, viticulturists and winemakers and they should feel incredible proud of this set of results. We are showing real resilience as a sector with exciting times ahead.”
Mark Dawson, Wine Standards Inspection Team Leader at the Food Standards Agency, said: “2025 has been a truly exceptional year for English and Welsh wine, and these figures reflect just how far the industry has come. Our role is to ensure that the wine reaching consumers is safe, accurately labelled and meets the required standards. The growth we are seeing across the industry from vineyards to warehouses to wholesalers and traders makes our work more important than ever.”