Nyetimber 1086 2013: best price for this, the best wine from the best English estate, and the first prestige cuvée ever produced in England: case of three bottles delivered

The Nyetimber estate, based in the heart of West Sussex, is widely regarded as an ideal site for sparkling wine production. First recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book, the estate has a lengthy history and was first established as a vineyard in 1988, planting just over 14 hectares of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier vines. The ever-increasing demand for Nyetimber’s sparkling wines led to considerable vineyard expansion from 2006 onwards. Today, Nyetimber comprises 11 carefully selected vineyards across Sussex, Hampshire, and Kent, with 425 hectares under vine.

The estate is owned by Dutchman Eric Heerema, who, alongside Head Winemaker Cherie Spriggs, has installed an impressive cellar. Cherie Spriggs won the much-coveted IWC ‘Sparkling Winemaker of the Year’ in 2018, becoming the first winemaker outside of Champagne and the first woman to achieve this coveted accolade. Nyetimber’s grapes are 100% estate-grown, handpicked and gently pressed, parcel by parcel, using their six state-of-the-art Coquard presses from Champagne. Their vineyard holdings are planted on either chalk or greensand soils, both favoured for their good drainage and low vigour. Their vines are rigorously managed to ensure excellent flavour concentration, and de-leafing is carried out to maximise the grapes’ exposure to sunlight.

Nyetimber was the first producer to make English Sparkling Wine exclusively from ‘Champagne varieties’, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The estate provides a Lot code on the back label of each bottle. Entering this code on their website will provide a precise chronology of each bottle from the moment it was bottled to when it was riddled and disgorged.