Nyetimber Classic Cuvee is a blend of classic Chardonnay grapes made by Stuart and Sandy Moss in their vineyard near West Chiltington. The 1993 vintage beat top bubbly from all over the world to scoop the Yarden Trophy for best sparkling wine at the International Wine and Spirit Competition in 1998.

For three years in a row, Nyetimber wines have swept the board at the award ceremony, winning the trophy for best English wine and beating 43 other countries to the gold medal for sparkling wine in 1997, 1998 and 1999.

And if bubbly drinkers find that hard to swallow, they can look to an even more regal source for proof of Nyetimber's superiority.

The Queen chose the Sussex tipple to toast the new millennium on New Year's Eve as well as making it pride of place at her golden wedding celebration. She has also selected the brand for several State occasions including banquets with the Chinese President and the Japanese Emperor.

Experts have been baffled by the success of this effervescent wine. Stuart Moss, who owns the vineyard with his wife, said: "We decided Britain could be the top country in the world for producing sparkling wine, and we were the only ones in the country who thought it. We've changed the whole course of viniculture."

The couple moved to England from Chicago in the late Eighties with an idyllic retirement in mind, but instead they have found themselves working up to 12 hours a day.

They hit upon the idea of cultivating a vinery after spotting a vineyard in Suffolk. Following a career as a leading manufacturer of medical, dental and X-ray equipment, Stuart, now 62, was not one to do things by halves.

Together with his wife, whose career as one of America's top antique dealers was equally prestigious, Stuart went gung-ho into the new business of viniculture.

The pair spent months searching for the right location. Stuart said: "We did extensive research and found that greensand was the best soil to grow the Champagne grapes. But in England the soil is very rare."

In a stroke of luck the couple found Nyetimber Manor, a spectacular oak-timbered mansion dating back to the Domesday Book.

In the 16th Century the manor was given to Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife, by Henry VIII, when it was embellished with a bell tower, secret passages and cavernous fireplaces.

But what interested the Mosses most was the soil - 100 per cent pure greensand. And although grapes had not been grown there for 700 years, brethren of the Priory of Lewes had cultivated vines there in the 12th Century. They snapped it up.

Originally they were told by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food that they would be wise to stick to growing apples. But Sandy, now 51, said: "They should have realised we're from Chicago. The more they told us not to do it, the more determined we were."

The Mosses moved in in 1987, two weeks before the hurricane struck. They lost 700 trees to the gales but they didn't let it daunt them. They planted 50 acres of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes, bought a wine press from Champagne and set to work.

They were far from experts when they started out.

Sandy trained as a wine-maker at Plumpton Agricultural College after the couple flipped a coin to decide who would be in charge. She says sometimes she finds it all exhausting: "But then we open up a bottle and I remember why we do it."

And Stuart believes every bottle of their wine is like a little ambassador: "British diplomats can pour this wine out to French colleagues with a big smile on their face, knowing they can be proud, and that's very pleasing.

"We're interested in showing the world, and Britain, that great things can happen here."

Bottles of Nyetimber Classic Cuvee and Nyetimber Premiere Cuvee cost £17, with a case costing around £200. Anyone wishing to know more can call 01798 813989.

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