Grape varieties
If you are a commercial grower, grape varieties that can be grown in the UK are restricted; furthermore what you can call you wine is also restricted but these considerations are not important to the amateur.
Because of the limited number of corrective sprays available to the amateur, it is very important to consider disease resistance when buying vines. Newer varieties have been bred with this in mind - in addition to flavour!
The grape that is probably most widely planted in the UK is a variety called Seyval Blanc and can be found in a great many commercial vineyards, including Denbies Vineyard (the largest in the UK). It is a hybrid that can be relied upon to crop well; it has a good flavour and shows good resistance (but not total immunity) to most vine diseases in addition to being able to cope with phylloxera should this ever arrive on our shores. This probably accounts for its popularity.
I have personally grown Seyval Blanc for a number of years in the UK and it has coped well with the vagaries of the UK climate and shown so little sign of disease that it is rare for any corrective action to be necessary. I met one commercial grower (with a mixed vineyard) who told me that the only spraying his Seyval got was any left in the tank after he had sprayed the others!
The one exception is botrytis (or grey mould). This disease attacks very many if not all fruit if the conditions are right. It is further discussed under diseases.
The 2007 season was unusual - an early spring and bud-burst was followed by a disastrous summer that was cold and wet leading to powdery mildew in most varieties that I grow (including Phoenix and Triomphe, said in some places to be resistant) and halved the yield of Pinot Noir. The moral of the season is that, as an absolute minimum, spraying with sulphur is necessary on susceptible varieties especially if the sun refuses to shine! However, the Seyval Blanc came through virtually unscathed.
» Summary of grape characteristics.
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