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9. Monty's red will be joined by a white next year (Image 9 of 13)

Rich: So when can we expect to be drinking Monty’s latest wine creations?

The white should be available in February next year. It should be quite light and fresh, and is designed to be bottled and drunk young. It’s not a wine that's going to age 50 years! The red should be bottled in March as long as it gets picked OK next week!

Last year we made 6,500 bottles of red but this year I’m hoping for 8,000 bottles. It can change dramatically though - they didn't show this in the TV show but three weeks before harvest I was looking like making 8,000 bottles but a hot wind blew in from the Sahara and that shriveled the grapes slightly - less juice equals less wine. I lost 1,500 bottles in a flash because of a change in the wind. That could happen this year but I’m hoping not! It's a risk you take.

There's also been fewer wild boar this year! I was in the vineyards yesterday and saw two vineyards (not mine, thank goodness!) where there were literally no grapes left. It's a real problem - I think on the show it seems like a bit of a joke, with Harry running around keeping the boar at bay, but it's a real and serious problem. In such a dry region the boar are after the moisture in the grapes and they wait until they're really plump and juicy and ripe before hoovering them right off the vines. They're the biggest single problem I faced. What makes it even more annoying is that you've worked hard all season, done everything right with the farming, ploughed in so many hours of hard graft and then just as the grapes are perfectly juicy and ripe the boar come in and undo all your hard work.

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