The English winery owned by Lord Ashcroft, former Tory deputy chairman, has delayed this year’s harvest owing to poor weather.
Kent-based Gusbourne announced the delay on Monday morning, as it blamed “challenging and variable weather conditions throughout this year’s growing season”.
While this will lead to reduced production, Gusbourne said the decision would not harm the quality of this year’s vintage.
The winery, which is listed on London’s AIM market but remains majority-owned by Lord Ashcroft, said: “It is expected to be a harvest of high-quality but reduced yield compared to last year’s record 2023 vintage”.
It comes as domestic winemakers battle a cold and wet growing season, which has led to reduced yields across many vineyards in Kent.
As part of its latest update to investors, Gusbourne said its net sales fell 3pc to £3.3m in the first half of the year.
This was largely caused by weaker supermarket demand, which sank by 22pc to hit £1.3m. However, bosses hailed a spike in international sales, which rose 13pc to £840,000.
A mixed performance led to pre-tax losses hitting £1.94m over the six months, up from £1.44m at the same period last year.
Jonathan White, Gusbourne’s chief executive, said: “Looking forward to the second half of the year, the macro-economic environment remains complex with consumer confidence affected by inflationary pressures and cost of borrowing in many markets.
“At the same time, consumer interest in Gusbourne wine and English wine generally continues to grow across the globe and this combined with the ongoing progress we continue to make against our strategic priorities continues to give the board confidence in the group’s long-term prospects.”
It emerged in July that Lord Ashcroft was exploring the potential sale of his 66.8pc stake in Gusbourne, with advisers also mulling a possible merger with another business.
Gusbourne has been majority-owned by the former Tory peer since 2013.
At the time of his acquisition, the winery was a relatively small player in the market and sold its wines largely to high-end restaurants in the UK.
It has since expanded its operations to distribute wines to 37 countries around the world.
English wine has exploded in popularity in recent years thanks in part to increasingly warmer weather in Southern counties such as Sussex and Kent, which lends itself to the creation of high-quality sparkling wines similar to those made in Champagne.
This has led to French champagne giants buying up land in the South of England, including Taittinger which opened a new £15m winery in Kent last week.
Speaking at the opening of the winery Domaine Evremond, Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, the company’s honorary chairman, urged Eurostar to restore services to Kent in a bid to boost the region’s wine tourism.
