We need you!

If you love the idea of being out in nature, keeping active and learning a new skill then volunteering in our vineyard team might be for you.

Each year we recruit a team of local volunteers to come and help us keep on top of various, time-critical tasks in the vineyard such as tying down the vine canes in Spring and leaf-stripping during flowering as well as grape-picking at harvest.

These operations require a certain amount of physical endurance and motivation to work outdoors but if you love the idea of helping out as part of our friendly vineyard team whilst enjoying the sights and sounds of our beautiful vineyard, then get in touch by emailing our Vineyard Manager, Paul Harrison at paul.harrison@saffrongrange.com.

Current Tasks We Need Support With

We are planning on running two specific volunteer days on Friday 30th August and Sunday 1st September where we will be inviting a team of local volunteers to come in and help us with this extremely important task of leaf plucking. Leaf plucking or leaf removal by hand involves selectively removing leaves from the fruiting zone.

As always, there will be plenty of coffee and cake on offer for our wonderful volunteers!

The key purposes and benefits of this are:

1. Improved Sunlight Exposure – the bunches are exposed to more sunlight which enhances ripening, leading to better sugar accumulation, colour development, and flavour concentration.
2. Enhanced Airflow – Removing leaves increases airflow around the bunches, recuing the risk of fungal diseases.
3. Temperature Regulation – sunlight and heat exposure helps achieve the desired phenolic ripeness, which is important for developing the tannins and colour compounds.
4. Improved Spray Penetration – leaf plucking can improve the effectiveness of fungicide applications.
5. Better grape quality – better grape quality ensures the wine in the bottle is of great quality too.

If you’re interested or would like to find out more, please email Paul Harrison at paul.harrison@saffrongrange.com.