Wiltshire vegetable farmer Phil Collins is struggling to keep up with the drought, having lost thousands of pounds in revenue due to scorched cauliflowers and shrivelled potatoes. In contrast, winemakers like Sandy Luck at Aldwick Estate vineyard in Somerset are thriving, thanks to the dry weather that has helped ripen grapes and increase sugar content. English wine production was 55% higher in 2025 than the previous year, allowing for a wider variety of wine styles to be made. Meanwhile, farmers across the country are warning of a potential shortage of produce due to the drought conditions.
Written by the local model on 2026-08-21,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Why this leaning score
The article frames the drought as a challenge for vegetable farmers, using words like 'scorched', 'shrivelled', and 'wilted', but presents winemakers in a more positive light, highlighting their success and the quality of their products. The language used to describe Phil Collins' failing veg farm is sympathetic, whereas Sandy Luck's thriving vineyard is presented as a triumph.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph
rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score +0.35 for article 563 · logged 2026-08-06
- Published
Until this year, Phil Collins, a Wiltshire vegetable farmer, had never had an overdraft.
asserted
Collins → publish → overdraft
Six weeks without rain has scorched his cauliflowers, shrivelled his spuds, and shrunk his bank balance.
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weeks → scorch → balance
"Six thousand cauliflowers at £1.25 each," he said ruefully.
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he → say → 1.25
"You do the maths."
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You → do → maths
Veg farmers across the country are warning of a shortage of produce after the driest July for 190 years.
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farmers → warn → years
"The vines love the warm, dry days," said Somerset winemaker Sandy Luck.
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Luck → love → days
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?
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they → persist → climate
Walking between the vines in Sandy Luck's Aldwick Estate vineyard, just south of Bristol, you could be in Southern France, not North Somerset.
uncertain
you → walk → France
"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.
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some → get → varieties
"We're ahead of the game this year."
Winemakers love this summer.
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Winemakers → love → summer
The long hot dry days have helped ripen the fruit and "keep disease at bay", as Luck puts it.
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Luck → help → it
More sun means more sugar in the grapes, which will mean higher alcohol content.
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which → mean → content
This allows English winemakers to produce still red wines, where traditionally the cool climate had limited them to drier sparkling varieties.
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climate → allow → 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.
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Aldwick → mean → fizz
"It makes a more rounded wine," Luck explained.
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Luck → make → wine
"The quality is higher, and we have more variety we can make," she explained.
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she → have → variety
Simply 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.
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making → put → styles
Hot summers also mean more wine.
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summers → mean → wine
So could French weather mean French wine prices?
uncertain
weather → mean → prices
"Sadly not," Luck smiled.
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Luck → smile → ?
"We are a small team, our vineyard is just over 12 acres, and we are going for quality not quantity.
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we → go → quality
"
Just 50 miles from the thriving Somerset grapevines, in a field near Devizes, Phil Collins shows me a much sadder sight.
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Collins → thrive → sight
"Six and a half thousand cauliflowers here, which have just basically cooked," he explained.
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he → cook → ?
We walk on, through a field of potatoes, the plants shrivelled to nothing and lying brown on the soil.
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plants → walk → soil
"This is Marfona, which is meant to be a drought resistant variety," Collins said.
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Collins → mean → ?
"But this year has just been so dry, it couldn't cope with it.
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it → cope → it
The plants should be two foot high and green - there's nothing left there."
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plants → be → ?
He and his team sell veg through farmers' markets, but still compete with supermarket prices.
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He → sell → prices
If he was to irrigate all his crops to keep them alive, the costs would be so high his cauliflowers, spuds and carrots would be far pricier than supermarket alternatives.
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cauliflowers → irrigate → alternatives
He picks runner beans each morning, and is getting "about a third of the normal crop".
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He → pick → crop
"I've never had an overdraft in thirty years," he said.
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he → have → years
We will get over it, but it'll take a while."
Met Office climate scientists are clear: the heatwaves of 2026 are exacerbated by climate change, and the UK will see more hot dry summers more often.
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UK → get → summers
"We are seeing the emergence of new warmer climates," explained Mike Kendon, climate scientist at the Met Office.
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Kendon → see → Office
Farmers like Sandy Luck and Phil Collins know this, and are trying to plan.
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Farmers → know → this
Well-tended vines sink deep roots, and the heat stress "is actually good for them, making them go deeper, and put out more grapes," explained Luck.
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Luck → tend → grapes
But Phil Collins is wondering what plants to grow next year.
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Collins → wonder → plants
"Pumpkins are a mediterranean crop, they should do OK, but even they have struggled this year with the dry," he said.
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he → do → dry
He looked out across his fields of brown, scorched plants.
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He → look → plants
"I really just don't know what to grow if it carries on like this."
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it → know → this
