Hambledon Vineyard Blanc de Blancs

Description

Hambledon Vineyard Blanc de Blancs is a Hampshire Sparkling made from 100% Chardonnay grapes sourced from estate vineyards around the village of Hambledon. It was first launched in 2025 and uses wine from the superb 2018 vintage as its base.

Hambledon Vineyard is England’s oldest commercial vineyard. It was founded in 1952 by Major General Sir Guy Salisbury-Jones, a trailblazer for English wine-making. The vineyard passed through a couple of owners until Ian Kellett acquired the vineyard in 1999. Ian would eventually go on to study wine-making at Plumpton College and, in 2005, convinced that sparkling wine production was the way forward in the UK, a 10-acre ‘test bed’ of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier was planted on a combination of 27 different vine clones and rootstocks to see which gave the best results. In 2023 the estate was acquired by a consortium consisting of the UK’s oldest wine and spirits merchants, Berry Bros & Rudd, and Symington Family Estates, owners of Cockburns, Dows, Grahams, Warres et al.

The estate comprises some 200 acres of vineyards, spread over numerous sites, which are situated on chalky slopes around the village of Hambledon. This area is divided into three vineyards consisting of 30 individual plots with differing terroirs and microclimates. The chalk of the South Downs is an extension of the chalky soils in Champagne. The Belemnite chalk on which the vines grow was formed on the seabed of the Paris basin some 65 million years ago and is found in the best Chardonnay areas of the Côtes des Blancs in Champagne. The grapes are hand-picked and undergo a double selection for quality, once in the vineyard, and once before pressing at the only gravity-fed, state-of-the-art winery which allows for wines to be made with the minimal possible intervention. As of spring 2025, Hambledon produces five cuvées, a Classic Brut and Rosé, a Premiere Cuvée Brut and Rosé, and this latest addition, a Blanc de Blancs.

As mentioned above Hambledon Vineyard Blanc de Blancs is made from 100% Chardonnay. The wine is based around Chardonnay from the excellent 2018 harvest.  A small percentage of reserve wine (2%) is blended with this. This comes from from Hambledon’s Solera wine reserve system which consists of a library of blends dating back to 2010. The wine then spent more than 4 years maturing on lees, where it has been gaining complexity and balance over time, before first disgorgement in May 2024.

The dosage is 3.42 g/L.