Winemakers prosper but veg farms wilt in the drought

Here is a story making headlines in the economy: Winemakers prosper but veg farms wilt in the droughtImage caption, Grapes in this Somerset vineyard are thriving in the sunny dry conditionsByDave Harvey West of England business and environment correspondentPublished6 August 2026Until this year, Phil Collins, a Wiltshire vegetable farmer, had never had an overdraft. Six weeks without rain has scorched his cauliflowers, shrivelled his spuds, and shrunk his bank balance. "Six thousand cauliflowers at £1.

25 each," he said ruefully. "Veg farmers across the country are warning of a shortage of produce after the driest July for 190 years. But there are winners, notably winemakers.

Economic Details

"The vines love the warm, dry days," said Somerset winemaker Sandy Luck. So as the heatwaves and drought persist, who is thriving, who is struggling, and will farmers have to change what they grow in a warming climate? Image caption, A field of potatoes has shrivelled to nothing after six weeks of drought in WiltshireWalking between the vines in Sandy Luck's Aldwick Estate vineyard, just south of Bristol, you could be in Southern France, not North Somerset.

The sun is out, again, and the grapes are plump and plentiful. "We're getting nice 'veraison' here, look at that," she says, showing me a bunch where some of the young green fruit of the red grape varieties are starting to turn purple. "We're ahead of the game this year.

"Winemakers love this summer. The long hot dry days have helped ripen the fruit and "keep disease at bay", as Luck puts it. There is a subtle shift too.

Analyst Views

More sun means more sugar in the grapes, which will mean higher alcohol content. This allows English winemakers to produce still red wines, where traditionally the cool climate had limited them to drier sparkling varieties. A hot dry summer in 2025 meant Aldwick produced some "very good looking still reds" from the Pinot Noir grapes, instead of using them for fizz.

"It makes a more rounded wine," Luck explained. "The quality is higher, and we have more variety we can make," she explained. Image caption, "Vines love the warm weather," explains Sandy Luck of Aldwick Estate VineyardSimply put, the South and South West of England are now frequently getting the kind of summers found in central France 20 years ago.

So making a greater variety of wine styles is now possible, not only the traditional dry English whites and sparkling products. Hot summers also mean more wine. In 2025, English wine production was 55% up on the previous year.

Economists are analysing what the news means for the markets.