As pioneers of English sparkling wine, Nyetimber is known for an exacting approach to winemaking—harvesting its fruit parcel-by-parcel. Each grape in Nyetimber’s 100% estate-owned vineyards is hand-picked at its peak ripeness, ensuring optimal quality. This careful selection process enables Nyetimber’s Head Winemaker, Cherie Spriggs to choose only the finest grapes for Nyetimber’s acclaimed sparkling wines. By harvesting, pressing, and fermenting grapes from each parcel, separately, she can uncover the subtle nuances that define each parcel in Nyetimber’s 11 vineyards, resulting in sparkling wines rich in complexity and character.
This year’s growing season has been wetter than usual, with higher-than-average rainfall creating conditions that required constant care and precision from Nyetimber’s vineyard team. A notably warm and wet spring, while allowing Nyetimber to avoid frost damage, led to vigorous vine growth that demanded additional canopy management and weed control. Furthermore, under-vine maintenance was required to reduce weed and grass pressure. Timing-wise budburst aligned with long-term averages, yet flowering was slightly prolonged by persistently cool and damp weather. The mild summer provided only brief respites from the rain, culminating in a typical Harvest start date of early October.
After the last grape is picked, the work in the vineyard continues as Nyetimber lays the groundwork for the next season by beginning to prune the vines and tidying the fields in preparation for winter. Meanwhile, fermentations will be underway in the winery for several weeks, and in early January tastings begin to decide upon the blends for wines to be bottled from the 2024 Harvest. Nyetimber has an unwavering attention to detail, with every step, from vine to bottle, driven by passion, craftsmanship, and a relentless pursuit of perfection.
