OXFORDSHIRE’S winemakers are looking forward to raising a glass to next month’s harvest after a perfect summer for growing grapes.

The warm weather – without too much rain – that the county has enjoyed over the last few months has been a boon for Oxfordshire’s vineyards and means 2014 is set to be a good vintage.

And with a few weeks to go before the harvest, they are hoping the weather holds out.

Carol Nielsen, owner of Brightwell Vineyard near Wallingford, said the conditions for growing grapes had not been this perfect for eight years.

She said: “We won’t know anything until we pick the grapes, but the weather has been good this year so far.

“We find that most years are different and there is usually part of the growing season that’s a problem, but this year has been great. It has been eight years since we have had such a good summer.”

Brightwell Vineyard is Oxfordshire’s largest, with 14 acres of grapes from which it makes white, rose and red wines.

Sian Liwicki, of Bothy Vineyard in Frilford Heath, near Abingdon, said: “We are not harvesting for a couple of weeks, but it looks fantastic so far.

“Because of the late summer sun we are going to get good quality. We are on the road to a really nice vintage so we are really chuffed.”

The Romans introduced winemaking to the UK, growing vines as far north as Lincolnshire. Viniculture, as the growing of grapes specifically for wine is known, had a resurgence in the mid 20th century after being dealt a blow by a series of pests in the 19th century.

Bothy Vineyard, established in 1978, is Oxfordshire’s oldest vineyard.

According to English Wine Producers, the marketing body for the UK wine industry, there are 13 vineyards in Oxfordshire.

In August the Oxford Union played host to the first Oxford Wine Festival which saw 2,000 wine-lovers descend on the venue.

Ted Sandbach, managing director of Oxford Wine Company, said his company stocked some locally produced wines.

He said: “The growing conditions have been perfect. You don’t want it too hot, you want it to be warm without being blazing and you don’t want too much rain.

“England is generally better known for sparkling wine.

“Most of the qood quality sparking wines are make in Sussex, but some of Oxfordshire’s vineyards produce some quite good wines.”

In the northern hemisphere, grapes begin growing around March and are usually harvested between September and November.

A spokesman for the Met Office said: “All in all, it has been a bit of a mixed bag in terms of rainfall, although it has been slightly drier.

“But temperatures have been consistently above average.

“There has been a long run of this from March to August.

“We have also had slightly more sunlight.”

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