2026: A new year begins

Happy New Year to you all, and thank you for the fantastic support you have given to the Marlbank Vineyard in 2025. I am sorry for all those who could not buy as much as they wanted!

I hope that you have had a great festive season, and that you have enjoyed drinking the Marlbank sparkling 2023. I would be interested to hear of any outstanding food and wine pairings that you might have enjoyed over Christmas. Please let me know if you have had a particular eureka moment this Christmas..!

The vineyard is now dormant, and we will be looking forward to pruning the vines in early Spring. This is one of the most important moments in the year, as the pruning will determine the baseline from which we can produce the grapes for the 2026 harvest.

If we leave too many budding points, there is a risk that we over-produce the number of bunches of grapes and this will induce stress in the vines, and the wines will be less interesting to drink as a result - no one wants that!

I’m personally excited for the new year as I have decided to undertake a course in wine-making itself. Our brilliant colleagues at Three Choirs do such a great job of turning our pinot noir grapes into wine, that they have made me very curious to better understand the process. I’ll therefore be returning to Plumpton (where I studied the grape-growing) to carry out this course over the next 6 weeks.

Another feature of this year that I am particularly looking forward to is to continue strengthening the collaborative with colleagues across the other Malvern Vineyards. We’ve got some exciting events and gatherings in store, so do keep an eye out for them throughout the year!

Vigneron Jerry Macklin after the 2025 Harvest