Celebrating English Fizz

Chardonnay-led, with around 20% reserve wines in the blend, it’s got just 4.5g/l of dosage added. This is a taut English fizz, with lots of green apple fruit, and a long and savoury finish: the perfect way to discover Hambledon.

The top production of the estate. Chardonnay-led, with a small proportion aged in oak, giving a slight smokiness to the wine, this is serious and incredibly long. There’s lovely, salty minerality on the finish, completing the picture.

The 2013 Tillington is surely the greatest wine yet produced in the British isles. The nose is delicate and floral, with notes of redcurrant and rose petal, enchanting and complex. The palate is finely judged, with wonderful acidity and just a hint of toasted brioche alongside a basket of fruits: wild strawberries, crunchy red apples, and pears. It's the structure that's truly remarkable, with dancing acidity and a wonderful mouthfeel. This is a stunning wine: one you'll want to try.

The 1086 is Nyetimber’s prestige cuvée, produced to be the pinnacle of the estate. A careful selection of dozens of separate wines from the 2010 vintage, carefully blended together, it then spent six years on the lees before being disgorged. It’s not cheap, but it’s undoubtedly the most ambitious, and most complex, sparkling wine produced in England today. Notes of biscuit and red fruit, and a very long, focused finish. So impressive.

The Classic Cuvée is a multi-vintage blend, coming from the hundreds of hectares of vineyards owned by Nyetimber. It’s a brilliant introduction to the range here. Creamy and fruit forward, there’s lovely structure, with a long and chalky finish.

Prior to 2010, the Classic Cuvée was a single vintage wine, and we’ve liberated a few bottles of the gorgeous 2009 Classic Cuvée, a wonderful vintage in England. Late disgorged just for Lay & Wheeler, it shows the ageing potential of this brilliant wine. Notes of ripe apples, caramel, and a hint of forest floor, this is utterly delicious.

Owner Mark is a huge believer in the power of Pinot Noir-led sparklings, grown on the pure chalk of the Rathfinny farm. So their Classic Cuvée is Pinot Noir-led, and spends 36 months on the lees. Rathfinny only produce vintage wines, and the 2017 is crisp and fruit forward, with just 5g/l of dosage, and a long, chalky, delicious finish.

The Blanc de Noirs is, for Mark Driver, the owner, the pinnacle of the estate. It’s a complex and structured Pinot Noir, with stunning purity of red apples and a lovely leesy complexity. It’s the best English Blanc de Noirs we’ve come across.

The 2015 Blanc de Blancs comes from tiny, 15hl/ha yields from the steepest, chalkiest part of the Wiston vineyard. 50% is fermented in old barrels, and the resulting wine is remarkable: focused yet rich, with a long, chalky, delicious finish.

The first fermentation of the Estate Cuvée is in old Burgundy barrels, which gives a different texture to the wine, which is led with 45% Pinot Noir. From the outstanding 2015 vintage, it’s an opulent, impressive expression of English Sparkling.

The N/V Brut is a blend of near-equal parts of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Meunier, that spends 3 and a half years on the lees, prior to disgorgement. Ample and creamy, with plenty of richness, it’s a lovely introduction to the house style.