Harvest Report

RNS Number : 2408E

Gusbourne PLC

27 October 2022

 

27 October 2022

Gusbourne Plc

("Gusbourne", the "Company" or the "Group")

Harvest Report

Highlights

· Our 2022 harvest is now complete and promises a vintage of great potential and which we anticipate will be amongst the best we have produced.

· Near perfect growing conditions with warm dry weather and a resulting harvest of superb fruit quality and one of the biggest yields to date.

· We have also enjoyed ongoing successes in recent wine awards.

· On track with plans to expand future production.

Gusbourne Plc, the English wine producer, is pleased to report that its 2022 harvest is now complete and marks a vintage of great potential.

The 2022 growing season was nearly perfect, dominated by warm, dry weather in which the vineyards thrived. The team's careful management of the vines throughout the summer, which included two heatwaves and a rigorous quality-controlling green harvest, meant that the fruit quality and quantity was superb.

Gusbourne remains absolutely focussed on quality and 2022 has so far delivered a record number of accolades for its wines, with the presentation of more gold medals and trophies than ever before. This included five gold medals at the Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships and four trophies, including retaining Estate Winery of the Year, at the Wine GB awards.

In September, the Company launched its new prestige vintage sparkling wine, "Fifty One Degrees North" to critical acclaim and which the Company believes sets a new quality benchmark for English sparkling wine.

Gusbourne also recently announced plans to expand its vineyard plantings and the additional wine created from grapes grown across the Estate's vineyards will support the longer-term growth plans of the Company. Wine production is a burgeoning industry in England and Wales with recent announcements from Wines of Great Britain's (Wine GB) estimating that wine production grew by 69% from 2017 (5.31m bottles) to 2021 (8.95m bottles). With estimated sales having also risen across the category by 69% since 2019 (5.5m bottles) to 9.3m bottles in 2021. Despite this heartening growth in UK sales, we believe there is still a significant growth opportunity for English wine.

Charlie Holland, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Winemaker commented:

"2022 is a vintage we anticipate will be amongst the best, ranked alongside 2014, 2018 and 2020. We harvested one of our biggest yields to date, which is crucially important, but it is the high quality of the fruit which particularly excites us."

"This has been a fantastic year for Gusbourne, and our success is testament to the team's unwavering commitment to detail and excellence. I am thrilled to see a wide range of our wines recognised by different judges at a number of different awards this year. Given that the awarded wines are spread across several different vintages, this also highlights the consistent excellence of our winemaking."

For further information contact:

Gusbourne Plc

Charlie Holland                                  [phone]

Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Nomad and Sole Broker)    

Oliver Cardigan     [phone]

Hugh Rich

Note: This and other press releases are available at the Company's website:   www.gusbourneplc.com

Note to Editors

Gusbourne produces and distributes a range of high quality and award-winning vintage English sparkling wines from grapes grown in its own vineyards in Kent and West Sussex.

The Gusbourne business was founded by Andrew Weeber in 2004 with the first vineyard plantings at Appledore in Kent. The first wines were released in 2010 to critical acclaim. Following additional vineyard plantings in 2013 and 2015 in both Kent and West Sussex, Gusbourne now has 231 acres of mature vineyards. The NEST visitor centre was opened next to the winery in Appledore in 2017, providing tours, tastings and a direct outlet for our wines.

Right from the beginning, Gusbourne's intention has always been to produce the finest English sparkling wines. Starting with carefully chosen sites, we use best practice in establishing and maintaining the vineyards and conduct green harvests to ensure we achieve the highest quality grapes for each vintage. A quest for excellence is at the heart of everything we do. We blind taste hundreds of samples before finalising our blends and even after the wines are bottled, they spend extended time on their lees to add depth and flavour. Once disgorged, extra cork ageing further enhances complexity. Our winemaking process remains traditional, but one that is open to innovation where appropriate. It takes four years to bring a vineyard into full production and a further four years to transform those grapes into Gusbourne's premium sparkling wine.

We are one of England's most awarded wine producers. Highlights include:

· Three times winner of the International Wine & Spirits Challenge (IWSC) 'English Wine Producer of the Year', having won the award in 2013, 2015 and 2017- a unique achievement.

· Back-to-back winner of 'Estate Winery of the Year' at the Wine GB Competition in 2021 and 2022.

· Trophy for 'Best Vintage English Sparkling Wine' at the 2022 International Wine Challenge in May 2022 , along with eleven other medals.

· Thirteen medals, including two golds at the Decanter World Wine Award in June 2022.

· A Judges' Selection and Platinum award at the Texsom Awards in June 2022.

· Shortlisted for 'Best Sparkling Wine Producer' at the International Wine and Spirits Competition in July 2022.

· Trophies for 'Best English Still Red Wine', 'Best English Still White Wine' and 'Best English Still Wine' at the Wine GB awards in July 2022.

· Five gold medals at the Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships in September 2022.

· Blanc de Noirs and Blanc de Blancs of the Year in the England 2022 Special Report by Tim Atkin MW in October 2022.

· Two Editor's Choice listings in Wine Enthusiast and four wines scoring over 94 points in October 2022.

Gusbourne's luxury brand enjoys premium price positioning and is distributed in the finest establishments both in the UK and abroad. Our wines can be found in leading luxury retailers, restaurants, hotels and stockists, always being aware that where we are says a lot about who we are.

Gusbourne also overwhelmingly dominates the list of English Sparkling wines traded on Liv-Ex and its Pinot Noir remains the only English still wine to be traded on the investment platform.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as amended by regulation 11 of the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019/310. With the publication of this announcement, this information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

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