On Tue, 23 Oct 2012 Martin wrote:

But I'd think the burgeoning group of English wine producers would be
the best source of information. IIRC Madeleine Angevine has been quite
successful, but I'm certainly not an expert on English wine, more's the
pity.

One English winemaker (I forget which) has totally abandoned this
year's wine making.

So have the Dutch vineyards for the same reasons

I've loads of growth on my vines but not a grape to be seen.

We had a few, but nothing worth picking.

My yield was down to 25% of what I had last year but that wasn't
entirely due to the weather, but rather to do with the strike by
Brittany Ferries. I was intending to gather the Chasselas grapes in
September but couldn't and so I had to leave it until last week.

As a result the birds and mice had a lot of the crop. I have two large
vines on the back and side of the house in Normandy and the little
critters had the lot even though I'd netted them. They didn't really get
going on the grapes in the vineyards, thank goodness, though I did lose
some that way. I know it was blackbirds because I saw them, and I know
it was mice because I found out where they had stored them! If I hadn't
lost so much to these depredations, I would probably have been down only
to 50% of last year's crop. However last year was a good year, probably
my best ever. In spite of the wet weather not many of the grapes
succumbed to the grey mould, thank goodness.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk