Naked picking for English Sparkling Wine

I was recently lucky enough to be invited to help with the grape harvest for a future English Sparkling Wine. Ok, so we weren't actually naked (it was far to cold for that nonsense) But our hosts were Naked Wines and one of their English wine suppliers, Ian Kellett from Hambledon Vineyard in Hampshire so it was definitely Naked style!

I jumped at the chance as I've never helped with harvesting grapes before and I was keen to learn more. But, on the day in question, the weather couldn't have been much more dark and dank. It had seemingly rained all night and the roads were flooded on the way to the vineyard.

However, we were given a really warm welcome by Founder and MD Ian Kellett (and a warm coffee and croissant). And the vineyard looked as beautiful as ever, even through the rain.

We were all presented with our pruning tools under strict instructions not to chop any fingers off! It felt like a lot of pressure and my little team of my husband and another Naked Wines Archangel, Leon, got a little bit OCD with making sure we didn't miss any grapes. I personally think we were perfect pickers! 

It wasn't as hard going as I'd thought especially as there were so many juicy grapes and we were fortunate enough to be picking in a field where most of the grapes were at head-height. Thankfully, the sun shone nearly the whole time and my fingers remained in tact at the end!

Once we'd finished picking we went on a tour of the winery operation. I won't go into this too much as I already wrote about how fab it was in my post about a day trip to Hambledon Vineyard.

On this visit though we were lucky enough to have to have the MD and Founder of Hambledon wines giving us the tour. What shone through really crisply from Ian were three key themes:

Firstly, yes, they are using similar techniques, equipment and winemakers to the French. But with their own slant. Ian was a biochemist in a former life, clearly an innovative entrepreneur and massively driven. To such an extent that he even personally planned and designed the huge fermentation tanks. I really felt like they were taking the best of the French model and building on it. 

Secondly, quality. No cutting corners. No sloppy methods. Everything done the right way to make a truly quality bottle of sparkling wine. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Ian and the team clearly feel like they are on cusp of potentially something great for English Sparkling wine. The weather, the chalky soil together with the quality and innovative methods, meant that Ian believed within his lifetime, England would be making perhaps 50 million bottles of wine a year. Big stuff.

The few bunches that us Angels and Archangels picked that day will help towards the clutch. In fact, we picked enough to make 1,020 bottles!

And, yes, we got to enjoy a few glasses of the good stuff. Hambeldon supplies two Sparkling Wines to Naked Wines and since this was a Naked event, it was these that we had the pleasure of tasting at the end. 

My favourite without a doubt was the Pink Fizz called Old Winchester Hill Oeil de Perdrix NV which was named after the area the wine grapes are grown. Served perfectly cold in glasses that Ian designed himself (of course, I'd expect no less) it had lots of beautiful, small bubbles, deliciously dry and a light, blushed pink colour. 

I'll definitely be putting a few bottles in my next order. And, who knows? Maybe I will buy a bottle in the future containing some of the grapes that we picked!

A day trip to Hambledon Vineyard

I first met Ian Kellet from Hambledon Vineyard at a Naked Wines tasting event. My husband and I enjoyed several glasses with him and bent his ear about English Sparkling wine. So this summer we thought we'd pay the vineyard a visit since it is only down the road from where we live.

Beautiful vineyard in rolling
Hampshire countryside

We contacted them via their website and discovered they had a range of wine and food events as well as a vineyard tour which is what we opted for. 

Despite it being a fairly dark and dank day when we visited the vineyard, the Hambledon estate is absolutely stunning. Long rows of vines stretching seemingly endlessly down across virtually unspoiled countryside views. Who knew we had such beautiful wine country here in England?

Bottles fermenting

Arriving late (as usual) we missed the start of the tour. But I guess there was about 15 people on the tour. My husband laughed when he saw everyone and said "Typical English people, getting dressed up to the nines to walk round what is essentially a farm in the rain". Too true.

Felix conducting the tour

Winemaker, Felix, conducted the tour. He clearly had a passion for winemaking and the production methods at Hambledon. Interestingly, despite this being an English vineyard, nearly all the machinery and many of the wine makers are French. It seems that, English wine production is still relatively speaking in its infancy. 

But it's led by Ian who is a Yorkshire man and all of the marketing team we met were English. So I guess there's a balance. 

Tasting some of the
good stuff

I'd never been on a Sparkling wine vineyard tour, so most of the production method was new to me. Especially as nearly everything they do at Hambledon is by hand. To make a sparkling wine, apparently there is a second fermentation in the bottle, with every single one of the bottles being stored at an angle and turned by hand every day (riddling). Labour intensive stuff and evidence of the care and love they put into the production.

They planned to start harvesting the grapes the second week in October which is apparently a month after France. But with the warmer weather in England this is a really exciting time for English wine production. And all the team seem really excited about what the future holds. 

Finally, we got to try some of the good stuff. Sadly, we only got to try one glass and none of the Hambledon wines. But I guess English Sparkling wines is pricey stuff and there were quite a few of us on the tour that day. Ian has subsequently told me that it's not really viable to open too many bottles. And perhaps doing wine flights and charging slightly more will be something they will consider in the future. 

We actually tried a glass of Meonhill Grande Reserve which was absolutely delicious. 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay, with tiny bubbles and a really crisp, fresh and sherberty. This wine was grown on an estate that Ian and the team recently purchased and apparently is the English Sparkling wine that Virgin Airways has chosen to serve in upper class.

They have a number of wine events between now and Christmas. Including the chance to make your own Sparkling wine for Christmas. 

A lovely vineyard to visit and the wine we tried was absolutely exquisite. Very much looking forward to trying the wines we bought on the day!