English winemaker scraps entire grape harvest due to poor weather Cherie Spriggs, Nyetimber's winemaker, said: "The quality is just not there. We've been monitoring the situation for some time and made the final decision on Tuesday after a week of difficult conversations with myself, the viticulturalist and Eric Heerema, the owner. She said that the maturity of the fruit "is not where it needs to be." Ms Spriggs said: "As for the flavour development, that's just not worth talking about. It's heart-breaking. For the whole team here it's tough - this is what we do, we take vines and we grow grapes and we make them into wine so to not have a harvest. A spokesman said: "The wet and cold summer meant we knew it could be a challenging harvest, but you never know till closer to harvest. Followed by a wet and cold autumn this has meant conditions aren't right for maturing our top quality grapes. In 2009 Nyetimber made enough wine for about 400,000 bottles, representing about 12.5 per cent of the wine production of the entire country that year. The estate covers around 430 acres. In a statement, the company thanked all the workers who had helped to grow this year's harvest. It said: "The drive for perfection is key to every aspect of Nyetimber's business. We focus not on years, but on generations. Nyetimber remains committed to creating the finest sparkling wine in England, one to rival the very best in the world, including champagne, and continues to look to the future with excitement and confidence. The company said that "at this stage" the cancelled harvest will not cause it to increase the price at which it sells its wines. "However, sparkling wines are released after several years on the lees, so that pricing decision is some way off," the spokesman said. Two years ago Nyetimber's Classic Cuvee 2003 won first prize in an international competition, beating leading French Champagne producers including Bollinger and Louis Roederer. The first Nyetimber vineyards were planted in Sussex in 1988. The aim was to make premium sparkling wine that would rival Champagne. The south of England shares similar geology and soils to the Champagne region.