Many vineyards in Kent will enjoy good harvests this year despite frosts damaging vines in April, according to one of Kent’s top viticulturists.

Stephen Skelton has planted more than 40 vineyards in Kent in a career spanning four decades and believes predictions of struggles for winemakers this year have been overblown.

Winemakers have been reassuring consumers about this year’s vintage, with Hush Heath Estate predicting a small but high quality crop, while Chapel Down issued a trading update to reassure investors after the unexpected cold snap in the spring.

Mr Skelton said: “Frost damaged some vineyards but some have got a very good crop. We have had frost issues in UK vineyards before.

“It is something you have to live with. Frost in late April is impossible to control but the impact has been exaggerated.”

Mr Skelton – who is behind the planting of Chapel Down, Hush Heath and Sandhurst among many others – said winemakers are not predicting a big year for crops.

However, only a fool predicts harvests in the wine industry, he added.

“The cropping variation in vines is bigger than in any other fruit crop. The best time to ask how good a crop will be is in November once it’s finished. Predicting it is a mug’s game.

“That said, I don’t think it will be a bumper crop because we had the frost but I think it will be a good crop in more vineyards than not.”

Some vineyards in the county were preparing to push back harvests for a year after the unexpected cold snap in the spring damaged some crops.

However, Hush Heath Estate in Staplehurst is predicting the surviving fruit to be higher quality when the harvest arrives towards the end of September.

Temperatures dipped to as low as -6C in parts of the South East over three nights in April – a 20-year low – killing off 40% of the predicted yield on the estate.

It had been hoping to increase production from around 100,000 to 400,000 over the next two to three years.

Producer and owner Richard Balfour-Lynn – who formerly owned department store Liberty, the Malmaison boutique hotel chain and Hotel du Vin group – said: “We are expecting a very high quality vintage but a much smaller vintage.

“Although we’re going to have less produce, the upside is the quality of the wines will be much higher because there is less pressure on the vines.

“It is difficult because demand is very high for English wines at present.”