Wine Region: Hampshire

(2025) Aged a minimum of 45 months, this Chardonnay-led wine (around 85%) is an assemblage, with its Pinot Noir component made as a red wine before blending. The colour is a peachy pink, and the mousse is modest. Aromas are of red berries and ripe pear, but there's an interesting herbal note too. Though the dosage is given as a Brut 8g/l, this gives an impression of sweetness on the palate, a nice bitter orange tang and really racy acids giving a vivacious character, quite grippy with nip of tannin too.

(2024) From Champagne house Pommery's 100-acre vineyard planted in Hampshire in 2017, this blends Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The mousse is foamy and rich, with aromas of biscuit and a touch of nettle, a nicely nutty style. In the mouth this is properly dry, the apple core sense of dryness with an only slightly fatter, lemon rind overlay, pushes the wine through the mid-palate. It's a very nice, classically proportioned wine this and at £24.00 in Tesco if you have a club card, a decent buy.

(2024) Bottled in 2015 and disgorged in 2022 after seven years of the lees,  there's a wonderful balance of singing freshness and biscuity richness. With 6g/l dosage it's on the dry side of Brut, and is a wine made only in exceptional vintages. As well as that biscuit character there's truffle and fresh, nutty apple fruit. In the mouth the mousse is lively and creamy, and though there's a thrilling directness of citrus and apple, hints of a more exotic and sweet nectarine join in. But zipping salts and lemon propel the long, mouth-watering and juicy finish.

(2024) Hattingly describe 2022 as "an unusual year," with double the normal sunshine hours during the growing season in some sites. This Chardonnay was whole-bunch pressed and 76% barrel fermented in old barrels, though only 19% was aged barrel for eight months. Around 60% of the blend went through malolactic fermentation. It's a fresh but meally, almondy wine, with plenty of crunchy yellow apple and citrus, but a suggestion of creaminess to the aromatics follows through to the palate. Lemon and orange on the palate is juicy and ripe - it's a crisp, light style, and yet there is texture and depth. Very well done in a broadly Chablis style.

(2023) At English wine producer Exton Park in Hampshire, winemaker Corinne Seely and viticulturist Fred Langdale make a formidable team. From an outstanding vintage where a mild spring and long Indian summer meant excellent ripeness, especially for the Chardonnay crop, this is a selection of fruit from just 20 rows of 20-year-old vines. Made in stainless steel with no oak, the wine spent a full six years on the lees, disgorged in 2021 with 10g/l residual sugar. It spent a further two years in bottle post-disgorgement, and was released in July 2023. Terrific nose, a sour, lactic note moving through to gentle toast. There fruit too, hinting at peach and even mango, citrus like kumquat, and a touch of spiciness. The mousse is fine, and in the mouth the rush of vibrant, acid etched fruit spans crunchy apple to peach. The acid sizzles across the finish, giving this real zest and lemony bite into a long layered finish. Upper echelons of all English sparkling wine.

(2021) This white sparkling wine is a blend of 60% Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  After three years on the lees, it was bottled with 7g/l dosage. Delightfully zippy, mineral and fresh, yet there is biscuit richness too.  In the mouth the citrus freshness surges through,  with a distinct lick of saltiness through the finish. Despite the lean, saline character there is charm aplenty in this lovely wine.

(2018) UK retailer Majestic has been launching small batches of 'one-off' wines under its Parcel Series label for decades. This single vineyard sparkling from Hampshire was made by Hambledon, a well-respected English sparkling wine producer, but apparently Majestic were forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement about the wine's specific details before they were allowed to purchase all 7,000 bottles. There are obvious signs of maturity and considerable lees ageing, from the burnished gold colour, to the gently oxidative nose with its deep, baked apple pie and bruised pear aromas. I'd be very surprised indeed if this was not made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. In the mouth there's a lovely sweetness of fruit, suggesting a good, ripe base year for this, and enough dosage to add a flattering softness against the very good lemon meringue pie combination of acidity and fruitiness. It is a mature style - but that's a style I personally love - and I would be very happy indeed to pick up a bottle or two at its £22.48 'mixed six' price.  Watch the video for more details and food matching ideas.

(2017) A wine I have followed for some time, this is a blend of 40% mature Chardonnay from the oldest vineyards with 60% Pinot Noir, all planted on the chalk soils of the South Downs. The mousse is creamy and fine and there is still that touch of pastry and biscuit to the sheer lemony fruit character on the nose, opening onto a palate that has added an extra degree of intensity since my last tasting it seems. The sumptuous character of the fruit and a modest 7g/l of dosage just blurs the steely edges rather nicely. Long and with a lick of salty minerality in the finish, it really is very fine indeed. Distribution for this wine is now very good - use the wine-searcher link - and half bottles at around £17.50 and magnums at around £60 are also available.

(2016) The Hampshire vineyards of Exton Park are beautiful and are producing some exceptional sparkling wines, as I reported in 2015. Now it's a delight to see they have released their wines in half bottles, always such a handy size to have around. This is the Brut, a blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, that in half bottle has wonderfully easy and sweet fruit, a touch of brioche and toast, and a glittering finish.

(2016) An unusual rosé sparkling wine, made from 100% Hampshire-grown Pinot Meunier, which winemaker Corinne Seely concluded was good enough and mature enough for this bottling as the vineyard passed its first decade since being planted. Though it comes from a single year (2014) it is being sold without a vintage date. It's a subtle and very refined style this - not the place to come if you are seeking a strawberry-scented, softened style of pink fizz, for this is bone-dry and taut, small redcurrant and apple fruit notes, bags of acidity and a clean, linear palate showing a crisp, racy mousse. Not showy, but very good.