Nyetimber reveals plans to grow exports

By Lisa Riley

Published: 12 July, 2018

Nyetimber has revealed plans to expand its international reach with the aim growing its exports to 20% in the next 10 years.

Exports of the English sparkling wine currently make up less than 10% of total annual sales, having grown from a mere 5% in the past two years, with Nyetimber available in several countries including Japan, Denmark and the US.

Looking ahead, Nyetimber is looking to make its first foray into Holland and Canada followed by "a variety of other countries”, said winemaker Cherie Spriggs, who made history when she picked up the Sparkling Winemaker gong at the IWC 2018 Awards ceremony earlier this week being the only non-Champagne sparkling winemaker to have won the award in the history of the competition.

“The UK is always going to be our priority but we are aware that in the 30 years since Nyetimber was founded we have barely scratched the surface of the international scene and this is something we are looking to change in the next few years,” she told Harpers.

In addition, Nyetimber would be looking to expand in existing export markets, predominantly the US where it is currently only available on the East Coast, said Spriggs.

While it was hard to predict “exact figures”, Nyetimber was aiming to grow total exports to make it account for up to 20% of total sales in the next 10 years, she added. “This would be a real achievement.”

But with demand for Nyetimber already outstripping supply, the producer would continue to take a “slow and steady” approach to new markets – monitoring performance carefully for the first few years, said Spriggs, adding while “nothing had been validated” in terms of expanding production, the producer would never say it was “stopping planting”.

“We picked Japan and Denmark as our first export markets very purposefully because of both countries being so passionate about food and drink and because the cuisine in both works so beautifully with sparkling wine,” she said.

Being half Canadian, Spriggs said Canada was “an exciting prospect”, while Holland was a “natural next step” with Nyetimber CEO and owner Eric Heerema born there.

Nyetimber's vineyards were planted in West Sussex in 1988 with the aim of making a sparkling wine to rival champagne.

Spriggs joined, along with her husband Brad Greatrix, in 2007, after studying at the Wine Research Center in Vancouver and at Adelaide University.

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