Q&A: Eric Heerema of Nyetimber

What was your first experience of wine?

Growing up in the Netherlands we didn't drink much wine – the rather awful Dutch habit was to drink milk at meals. If my parents had friends for dinner then they would have wine, and I would sneak in at the end and enjoy what was left. It would have been spirits and wine – I didn't discriminate. More seriously, I decided I liked wine at about 14 and, when I was 17, I really caught the bug and would persuade my mother to take me to wine auctions in Amsterdam. My first interest was very much red Bordeaux, so I'd be buying early 1970s vintages. I bought a Latour 1974 – not a good vintage – for about £8 [$11.50] in today’s money

Do you still buy wine at auction?

Not really. At the moment I have a more-than-adequate stock of ever-aging wines. There's a lot of Bordeaux and Rhône reds (although I love Condrieu as well), and I buy a lot of white Burgundy, and also the new world – Chile and California. I've always bought as an enthusiast, never for investment.

What do you think about Taittinger buying land in Sussex?

I think it's really good news. The more professional the industry gets the better for everyone, and having a grand marque like Taittinger sets a standard: it's a quality endorsement.

Were you surprised?

No, I'd expected it for years. Back in 2007 we knew that certain Champagne houses – Duval Leroy was the main one – had instructed estate agents to find land in England.

What do you think is the future for English still wines?

I think there is a future for English still wines made from sturdy hybrids [like Bacchus and Ortega] or German varieties, even Chardonnay. There's local demand, people are proud of serving local wines, but it will never become big. Remember also that there's an ocean of still wines in the world, and in England the yields are lower and the costs higher. The tendency to plant Champagne varieties will continue.

Are there any plans to make a still wine at Nyetimber?

No. We are concentrating on what we can do best to match and beat the rest of the world, and that's sparkling wine.

How have things changed over the past 10 years?

There is now far more knowledge, for example the nurseries are now producing better vines, clones and rootstocks suited to cool and wet climates. We have skill, courage, investments and long-term vision, and then there is another factor – within the UK there is healthy patriotism. We like to say: "We beat the French!"

Is courage is a major part of English sparkling's success?

At first there was a lot of skepticism. People would have thought Stuart and Sandy Moss [who first planted at Nyetimber in 1988] were mad – everyone thought Pinot Noir wouldn't ripen and Chardonnay would rot. Ten years ago, when I took over, it was proven you could make sparkling in England but there was still skepticism about the market. We had to justify ourselves; people said yes, it's good but it's too expensive. Now there's much more understanding of quality, and that the price-quality ratio is just right.

Was the decision not to make any wine in 2012 a difficult one?

It was a sad decision but a no-brainer. The crop was small and the quality was poor, the grapes were totally unripe, there was rot. We have a policy of aging wines longer, and we'd expanded the vineyards a year or two before, so we had a good stock of wines. Many of our peers sell their wines after one or two years and they didn't have stock, they had already sold out of '09 and '10, and 2011 was low, so for many people there was no option but to produce.

You must have taken quite a financial hit…

Stock-wise we didn't run into trouble. But in terms of future revenue it will amount to several millions. It was at the end of the season, so by that time everything was bad. This was another indication of how bad 2012 was for agriculture.

Did the failure of 2012 influence your thinking on non-vintage wines?

No. We decided we were going to make non-vintage in 2007. Being a sparkling wine producer in a cool climate, with a lot of variation between one year and the next, where you strive to produce a wine with consistency in quality and style, we quickly agreed this is where we wanted to go. In 2007 we produced our first reserve wine for vertical blending for a future non-vintage. The last Classic Cuvée vintage was 2010, so from 2011 it will always non-vintage. We will put aside between 25 and 30 per cent of the production for reserve wines

How do you decide on house style?

By a combination of experience, our history, and the provenance of the wines. It's the winemaker's job. I'm fortunate to take part in the tastings, but I leave it with the highest confidence to [winemakers] Cherie [Spriggs] and Brad [Greatrix] to gauge what they feel about the style. Our expectations and the expectations of the market have gone up. In the past, some Nyetimber wines have been a little too rich, but now they're very much about elegance and balance. Cherie and Brad are husband and wife but Cherie is the main winemaker, and I think her feminine touch may have helped the elegance of our wines.

You're aiming to launch in the US at the end of the year. What sort of image does English sparkling have there?

I think it's part of where you position your brand in general, not just for the international market. We are contemporary, we don't live in the past, although a lot of what we do is founded on centuries-old practices. Many Champagne brands are locked into a 19th-Century image – so there's a lot of cluttered, neo-baroque imagery on the bottles. Nyetimber's design has a Britishness to it; it's contemporary but not just trendy. It wasn't an easy process; the designer wanted to go a bit further but I wanted to stay within the visual language of Champagne.

Do you support the idea of a Sussex PDO [Protected Designation of Origin]?

We don't think a PDO is a solution. On one level the geographic spread [of English wine] is too wide, but to have a PDO for only one county narrows it down too much. Of course, Nyetimber is in a different position because we have brand recognition, but there are some new producers who will try to hold onto anything to have some sort of accreditation, so they can say: "We are good because we are part of the Sussex appellation".

What do you think the English wine landscape will look like in 10 years?

I think there will be more professional enterprises, both start-ups and also from producers consolidating with the aim of becoming more viable and sustainable. So there will be fewer and stronger producers. The biggest difference will be international awareness. As for Nyetimber, we'll continue to grow – we planted last year and we continue to plant this year. But no concessions to quality.

Prices worldwide on Wine-Searcher (US$, ex-tax, per 750-ml bottle):