Alison:  The English wine industry has been really flourishing over the past few years.  What kind of impact do you think that this one bad season could have on it, because it’s in a fragile state at the moment isn’t it?

Sam:  Yes it is.  That’s a really very good question. It’s going to affect us in that we’ll lose quantity of volume. But the quality – as long as we have a good rest of the summer we’ll have good quality, so we can still produce good wine. It’s the quantity we’re worried about .... and letting our customers down.

Alison:  So you have some very good customers. You supply wine to a top end supermarket.  You’re getting yourself a name across England.  What kind of damage will this have to your reputation?

Sam:  Well, it’s always important to give consistency of supply.  The great thing about the wine industry around the world is actually it happens to everybody, it’s not just us in England, so buyers and people do understand.  Let’s just hope the general public does as well and that, if our wines are limited in supply, that they will still support us and go out and buy it.

Alison:  When we were talking earlier you said that you may actually have a smaller crop this year but that it could lead to a better vintage, so there may be a silver lining to the cloud?

Sam:  There’s always a silver lining. Yes, you can always work on that in this industry. Certainly, the less amount of grapes a vine produces, the better quality and we’re always balancing between quality and quantity anyway. So yes, actually we can get riper grapes and more concentrated wines from this.

9th July 2007 - BBC Breakfast News Interview (part 2)