Nyetimber’s head winemaker Cherie Spriggs: ‘I think about wine in a musical way’

The woman who’s done more than anyone to propel English sparkling wine to new heights and make it a contender to champagne, Cherie Spriggs is a familiar figure on the medal stage.

Head winemaker at Nyetimber in West Sussex, she was crowned Sparkling Winemaker of the Year for the second time last year; along with Nyetimber’s Blanc de Blancs 2016 Magnum winning the International Wine Challenge Champion Sparkling Wine 2025.

Considered the ‘Oscar’s of the Wine Industry’, and most prestigious competition, Spriggs is still the only woman to have won the title; and the only person outside of France to have won twice.

“2018 was the first time I got the winemaker award,” recalls Spriggs. “And I joined Nyetimber in February 2007, so it was just a little over 10 years.

“And that’s the thing about sparkling wine. You’ve got to be patient. It is a slow, slow, slow process.

“Improving quality in a sparkling wine brand, you’re in it for the long haul… you shouldn’t look at that as a job to do, just for a couple years,” she quips.

As with so may leading lights hesitant about their career path, Canadian-born Spriggs didn’t start out with the intention to be a winemaker.

“I was one of those kids that even when I graduated university, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.

“I loved science, but I was also heavily into classical piano training. I liked arts, I liked science… I was really torn.”

She continues: “It wasn’t until my now-husband, Brad, and I did a trip to Burgundy, France, where I realised: ‘Hang on, wouldn’t it be funny if we could do a PhD in wine, because that combines the artistic side with science.’

“And I thought, oh, this would be fantastic! It hadn’t even occurred to me until then.”

Spriggs remembers touring Burgundy, talking to winemakers, and asking questions like “How do you do this?” and they explained some of it is “intuition and artistry, not science.”

It’s not just a scientific process when you’re making wine, she says. “I think it’s a classic thing… Burgundy tends to get under people’s skin, so that’s where I realised I wanted to be in wine.

“It wasn’t until much later the thought entered my head to do sparkling – I was originally on track to make still wines.”

Qualified oenologists, married couple Spriggs and Brad Greatrix went on to work in wineries across Australia, New Zealand and the US, “the mindset we had at that time was ‘we’re going to end up making still wine in Canada.”’

It wasn’t until her father took a trip to England they enjoyed their first taste of English fizz. He said, “Hey, is there anything I can bring you?”

“Jancis Robinson had just released her first The World Atlas of Wine, where England got a mention, and said ‘I heard about this sparkling wine called Nyetimber, can you bring me some?'”

“One night, Brad and I opened it up and went, wow… there’s quality here, there’s potential we haven’t seen anywhere else in sparkling wines, except for champagne.”

The memory stuck in their heads because a few years later when looking for different winemaking opportunities, Greatrix said: “What would your dream job be?” The first thing that popped into her head was: “I want to make sparkling wine in England.”

So much in life comes down to timing, and it just so happened that Nyetimber were looking for two winemakers.

“Right place, right time, and don’t forget your dreams,” says Spriggs encouragingly. “Because that simple little question ‘what’s your dream job’ really led us down an incredible path.”

On beating the French with Nyetimber’s Blanc de Blancs 2016 Magnum, and making history as the first non-champagne to win IWC Champion Sparkling Wine, she says: “It was an incredibly proud moment… to have the 2016 magnum topple amazing champagnes that I love and adore.

“It was almost a moment of disbelief; so proud for everyone at Nyetimber we were able to achieve that.”

A classically trained pianist, the 48-year-old mother to one daughter, says: “I definitely think about wine in a musical way.”

At Nyetimber for example: “They sit more in the alto [low female] and soprano [high female] end of a wine, rather than the tenor and bass [male vocal ranges].

“Of course, we need balance, so there’s a little bit of everything; but the overarching feel for me sits in musical terms as those delicate, pretty upper notes you can get in wine.”

Today, what moves and motivates Spriggs about the English wine scene is there’s more freedom for expression.

“We have the excitement… whilst we have all the knowledge of their tradition in Champagne – and a lot of that’s been proven as best practice – we also have some freedom to be able to experiment, and in some areas, improve on what they do in Champagne.”

She believes having less legislation about doing things in a certain way, and not bound by tradition, allows the producer to further perfect in areas, should they choose to.

“And there are some great wines being made in England now… very different to where things were back in 2007. I can put my hand on my heart and say I’ve had some sparkling wines made in other wineries that are fantastic.”

To mark International Women’s Day (March 8) and empower anyone to step up, Spriggs says: “All I think about every day when I go to work, is ‘how can I do a little bit better than I did before?'”

“I focus on the work. That’s the main thing. If I don’t let the other stuff get in, that’s my main route forward. Just to try and focus on what I can do, to do a better job.”

To raise a glass to women in wine, she says it doesn’t directly come down to music… but the way one thinks about wine. “Sometimes when I see a wine, or imagine it, the words that come into my head aren’t necessarily filled with accuracy.

“When I look at our blanc de blancs [chardonnay] category, it reminds me of a woman in a very beautiful, elegant dress. That may sound crazy, but it’s the image that comes into my mind. So having a blanc de blancs feels very appropriate.”

The current vintage is the 2017. “And that has a lot of delicacy and prettiness – it’s a light, very feminine style. I hate using that word,” she says with a smile. “But other people call it a feminine style.

“There’s a lovely floral element to it… it’s got very pretty citrus flavours, it’s very pretty.”

And who wouldn’t drink to that?