Gusbourne Regulatory News (GUS)

19 October 2023

Gusbourne Plc

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

Harvest Report

Largest harvest to date with potential for a great 2023 vintage

Gusbourne Plc, the English wine producer, is pleased to report its 2023 harvest is now complete.

Highlights

· The 2023 harvest is now complete with our biggest yield to date.

· Following our normal green harvest earlier in the year, an abundance of selected high quality fruit was harvested under sunny skies and earlier than in typical years, before the wet weather arrived.

· Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes show fine expressiveness and are expected to produce outstanding wines.

· Accolades in recent wine awards continue to recognise Gusbourne's world class winemaking success.

Following the warm growing season of 2022, the vines emerged from winter in great health. Good weather during the flowering period this year led to an abundance of fruit. The team's careful management of the vines throughout the summer, which included a rigorous quality-controlling green harvest, meant that the fruit quality and quantity was superb. 

Gusbourne remains absolutely focussed on quality and sustaining its premium market position. 2023 has so far delivered numerous accolades for its wines, with the presentation of over 20 awards. This included five gold medals and four trophies, including retaining Estate Winery of the Year, at the Wine GB awards and a Best in Show award at Decanter for Blanc de Blancs 2018.

Following the success of the now sold out 2014 vintage "Fifty One Degrees North", the 2016 vintage was released in September and it continues to set a high quality benchmark for English sparkling wine with significant interest from trade partners and our customers.

Mike Paul, Interim Chief Executive Officer commented:

"2023 will mark Gusbourne's biggest yield to date, but what is crucially important is that the vineyard team have maintained the high quality of the fruit which is the building block for our award winning wine. The winemaking team, led by Mary Bridges our Head Winemaker, are delighted with the potential for an amazing 2023 vintage. The resulting wines will be bottled during 2024, further adding to our inventory levels for sale in future years."

"This has been a fantastic year for Gusbourne, and our success is testament to the team's unwavering commitment to detail and excellence."

Enquiries:

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. The person responsible for arranging for the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company is Katharine Berry, Chief Financial Officer.

Gusbourne plc (AIM:GUS) is a premium English sparkling and fine wine producer, specialising in the production and distribution of award winning wines, produced from grapes grown across its vineyards in Kent and West Sussex.

Since the Group planted its first vines in 2004, it has had a clear vision and single goal: to create English Still and Sparkling Wines that would stand up alongside the very finest offerings from across the globe.

From these humble beginnings, Gusbourne has focussed on building long-term assets to drive value creation for all stakeholders. Today, the Group is an acknowledged leader in the rapidly expanding English wine industry, achieving international brand recognition across its product range.

Drawing on an estate of over 93 hectares of mature vineyards with additional new land available to scale further, the Gusbourne cellar continues to mature with ever expanding fine wine stocks becoming available to service the growing demands of the Group's increasingly international customer base.

Gusbourne's luxury brand enjoys premium price positioning and is distributed in the finest establishments both in the UK and overseas including premium hotels and restaurants, independent wine merchants, and high-end stockists and retailers. The Group also continues to invest in building strong relationships with its growing and loyal direct customer base, including through its immersive brand experience at its cellar door experiences, the Nest in Kent.