16,000 New Vines Take Root at Bolney This Spring

On Tuesday, 5 May 2026, Bolney Wine Estate reached an exciting milestone in its Roots to the Future journey. After months of preparation, vineyard planting officially began, with the team putting 16,000 new vines into the ground across the estate.

This is Part 3 of the Roots to the Future series. If you are joining us for the first time, the story so far has covered why we are renewing the vineyard and what happened to the old vines we removed. Now comes planting day, and a closer look at what it takes to get 16,000 new vines into Sussex soil.

Where we are in the Roots to the Future Project

Roots to the Future is a two-year vineyard renewal project, the biggest Bolney has taken on in over 50 years. Here is the journey so far:

• Autumn 2025: We grubbed up selected rows of older vines. You can read why in Part 1 of the series. (We originally thought there would be just 10,000 new vines to replant).
• Winter 2025 to 2026: The removed vines and pruning wood were collected and recycled into renewable energy rather than burned, which we covered in Part 2, on turning vineyard cuttings into renewable energy.
• Spring 2026: Planting begins. That is the milestone this post is all about.
• Autumn 2026 and Spring 2027: A second phase of grubbing up and replanting will follow, completing the project.

Viticulture vocab – “Grubbing up”: the term for carefully uprooting and removing old vines from a vineyard, usually so the land can rest before being replanted.

Where the New Vines Came From

The 16,000 new vines did not start their lives at Bolney. Each one was produced in a specialist vine nursery as a grafted plant, with a fruiting variety grafted onto a rootstock suited to our Sussex soil.

If you have ever wondered why vines are grown this way and not from seed, we have written a full explainer on the topic here: Are Wine Grapes Grown From Seeds?

The short version is that wine grapes are propagated from cuttings rather than seeds, because seeds would produce vines that are genetically different from the parent. To match the right roots to our site, each cutting of the fruiting variety (Pinot Noir, Chardonnay or Pinot Meunier) was grafted onto a chosen rootstock and sealed with a protective wax to keep the graft safe while the young vine settles in.

Planting Day: the Team and the Work Involved

Planting on this scale is a serious undertaking, and not a job a vineyard team can do alone.

The 5 May planting brought together the Bolney vineyard team, viticulture specialists Vinescapes, and Sam Barnes, all working side by side. Before a single vine goes in the ground, there is a great deal to plan and prepare:

• Spacing and layout: how far apart the rows and vines sit affects airflow, sunlight, machinery access and ripening.
• Rootstock selection: matching the right roots to the soil for resilience and consistent fruit.
• Soil preparation: making sure the ground is ready to give young roots the best possible start.
• Timing: the vines need to go in during a fairly narrow window, which we will come to next.

Each young vine is then planted into prepared soil and protected so it can establish itself. Multiply that careful work by 16,000, and you start to get a sense of the effort behind a single phase of replanting.

Why We Plant in Spring

Bolney sits in West Sussex, near the cool edge of the world’s grape-growing map. Growing grapes here means working in a cool climate, where the season is shorter, summers are milder, and spring frost is a genuine risk.

That climate is the reason we plant in the spring. Young vines go into the ground once the worst of the winter frost has passed, which gives them the longest possible stretch of warm weather to build roots and grow strong before facing their first winter.

It is worth noting that replanting is not done the same way everywhere. The grafted vine and the nursery process are broadly the same the world over, but the timing changes with the climate:

• In cool-climate regions such as England, northern France, and Germany, spring planting is the norm, and young vines rely largely on natural rainfall to establish themselves.
• In warm-climate regions such as parts of Australia, California, and Spain, growers often have a wider planting window and may plant in autumn or winter, since harsh frost is far less of a threat. Young vines there usually need irrigation to survive the hot, dry months while they get going.

For us, the upside is worth the extra care. Grapes that ripen slowly in cooler conditions hold on to high natural acidity, and that fresh acidity is exactly what gives English sparkling wine its liveliness and finesse.

What Happens Next

The 16,000 vines we have just planted will not bear a proper crop for around three years (we cover the full timeline in our explainer on how wine vines are propagated). The first year or two is all about establishing strong roots and a healthy trunk.

From here, the young vines settle into the annual growth cycle of the grapevine, the rhythm that shapes every vineyard year: dormancy in winter, budburst in spring, flowering and fruit set in summer, veraison as the berries ripen, and harvest in autumn.

Viticulture vocab – “Budburst” and “veraison”: budburst is when the first green shoots appear in spring; veraison is the moment in late summer when the berries soften, change colour and begin to ripen.

For the next few seasons, the Bolney team will train and tend these young vines, guiding their growth and protecting them from frost and disease. And the project itself continues, with a second phase of grubbing up and replanting planned for autumn 2026 and spring 2027.

Come and See the New Vines

There is no better way to understand a working vineyard than to walk through it. Bolney Wine Estate remains fully open throughout the project, and our guided vineyard tours give you a front-row view of the new planting as it happens.

On a tour, you can see the new vines settling into the Sussex soil, hear how cool climate viticulture shapes everything we do, and put your questions to the people doing the work.

Book a vineyard tour and tasting to see Roots to the Future in action, and follow the rest of the journey on our blog and across social media using #RootsToTheFuture.