Hambledon Vineyard

SMOKED AND UNCUT FEATURING HAMBLEDON VINEYARD

Hambledon Vineyard and THE PIGS & Lime wood first formed a strong relationship back in 2014 when the Hambledon Classic Cuvée became the pouring wine for the hotels. Both parties have continued to grow from that day, with THE PIG opening three new establishments in the next two years and Hambledon Vineyard expanding and growing its facilities through building a two million bottle cellar and extremely smart visitor centre by the end of 2018.

The team at Hambledon Vineyard are delighted to support THE PIG & Lime wood with their Smoked and Uncut Festivals with the unveiling of the Hambledon Bus Bar. We here at the vineyard, can’t wait to commence the bus tour starting on Saturday 16th June in the New Forest. Get ready to party in style on the famous Hambledon blue, double decker, luxury bus complete with it’s English Sparkling Wine bar. Roll up…roll up…all aboard!
 

Here’s Managing Director, Ian Kellet commenting on the bus development:
“The new Hambledon FIZZ BUS is getting washed, pimped & spruced ready for her coming out ball - maybe the first ever double decker debutant.”
Street-food feasting, day-long drinking, dancing like no one is watching and sleeping under the stars, the tag line for these amazing Smoked & Uncut festivals. This sums up the atmosphere perfectly.

A series of food and music festivals hosted at THE PIGs & Lime Wood Featuring our very own Hambledon Sparkling wine. We are so proud to be part of this amazing company, that supports its local producers so well. 

This year Smoked & Uncut returns to Lime Wood with live music, rock 'n' roll, the understated luxury of a glamping village and the rustic styles and flavours of the street food stalls. There will even be a VIP feast cooked up by Chef Mark Hix, Angela Hartnett and friends on both the Saturday and Sunday events. 

Make sure you really don’t miss out!

During the summer of 1951 Major General Sir Guy Salisbury-Jones was looking out of the dining room window of Mill Down House with his stepson John thinking about what to do with the field directly below them. As Sir Guy was a keen wine lover and Francophile, having spent time as a diplomat in Paris, John suggested he might consider planting a vineyard?

The seed had been sown and Sir Guy began researching the feasibility of planting vines on the south-facing chalky slopes surrounding the house in Hambledon on the South Downs. After careful deliberation, and with the help and advice from friends at the renowned Champagne House Pol Roger, he planted a number of different grape varieties in 1952 and went on to release the first commercial range of English wines. See the clip below showing the Hambledon harvest of 1961.

Winemaker Bill Carcary joined the Hambledon team in 1966 and the wines soon drew a strong following, winning a number of awards and even a Gold Medal at the International Wine & Spirits Competition in 1984. The wines were served on the QE2, in British Embassies around the world, in the Houses of Parliament and in export markets around the world including the USA and Japan. On one occasion during a visit to Paris, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 2nd served Hambledon wine to President Pompidou  during a reception at the British embassy in Paris. The story behind this wine being served involves Steven Spurrier MW (famous for the Paris Judgement of ’76) and an interesting interaction with French customs.
 

Sadly, following a change of ownership, wine making activities were curtailed at Hambledon in the mid 1990’s and the vineyard was shrunk to just 4 acres, producing grapes for sale to other wineries.

Ian Kellett acquired Hambledon Vineyard in 1999. As a passionate wine lover, Ian was intrigued by the winemaking heritage of the property. After analysing the commercial potential for English wine, he began studying oenology at Plumpton College in Sussex with a view to restoring Hambledon to its former glory.

Research convinced him that sparkling wines were the future and in 2005 Ian planted a 10-acre ‘test bed’ of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier to see which of the 27 different combinations of vine clones and rootstocks gave the best results. A team then travelled to France to meet Hubert de Billy, son of the chairman of Pol Roger, to revive a former relationship between Hambledon Vineyard and the esteemed Champagne House. 

Having proved that the site could grow fine quality Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, the vineyard was converted into a company in 2010 and 2011 enabling funding to be raised from third party minority shareholders. The company was also successful in applying for UK and EU government funding via the RDPE programme. The team at Hambledon remains deeply grateful both its shareholders and to DEFRA for the enabling support provided.

In 2011 one of the other final pieces of the jigsaw slotted into place with the appointment of Hervé Jestin, formerly one of Champagne’s leading chefs de cave. A renowned expert in minimal-intervention winemaking, Hervé directs all winemaking at the Estate.
 
Hambledon Vineyard now comprises over 50 acres of vineyards and the only gravity-fed, state-of-the-art winery in the UK. Work begins in 2017 on extending the cellars and wine storage to ensure that all the wine produced can be aged successfully on site. A tasting room and visitor centre is also planned for the future.
 

We currently have three main vineyards. Each vineyard is planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier – the three grape varieties most commonly used in the production of Champagne. 

Home Vineyard is planted on the steep Southeast-facing slope immediately beneath Mill Down House at between 50 and 100m above sea level. Our larger Windmill Down Vineyard spreads across the Southeast-facing slopes to the west of the house and winery.  The third vineyard to the east of the house is, unsurprisingly, called East Vineyard!

Making wine is a labour of love and our vineyard team works hard all year round, in all weathers.  Our 100,000 vines must be pruned by hand - like pruning the roses in your garden - and the grapes are handpicked in September and October. Our presses and winery are located on site, which means we can minimize the time between picking and pressing - a crucial factor to ensure the quality of the wine.

Geology has played a key role in the planning for Hambledon Vineyard.  The chalk on which we grow our vines was formed on the seabed of the Paris basin some 65 million years ago. It is part of the Newhaven Chalk formation that developed between the Santonian and Campanian eras of the Upper Cretaceous period (known as the Senonien period in Champagne). The same chalk, with the same Belemnite content, is found in the best Chardonnay areas of the Côtes des Blancs in Champagne and is thought to be a key factor in the quality of the wines.

Chalk is the perfect subsoil for growing vines because it acts like a sponge, retaining water when needed but also providing great drainage when it rains so that the vines do not get ‘cold, wet feet’! 

Our vision at Hambledon is to produce the best multi-vintage sparkling wine in England that will make Hambledon and the local community proud and gain universal recognition from the global wine community. We believe there are two crucial elements to producing fine sparkling wines: using the best possible raw materials and working with the best winemakers in the business.  
Our head winemaker Hervé Jestin has overseen the production of more than 200 million bottles of Champagne and sparkling wine during his career and was chef des caves at Champagne Duval Leroy for over 20 years. Hervé was originally recommended by Hubert de Billy, a director of Pol Roger, and is widely considered to be one of the best winemakers in the Champagne region.  Since 2015 Felix Gabillet has been our full time winemaker on site. A graduate of Changins University in Switzerland, Felix manages the winery on a day-to-day basis under Hervé’s watchful eye. Hervé continues to attend in person to direct all the crucial stages such as pressing, fermentation, bottling and most importantly the final assemblage. 

The on-site winery opened in time for its first harvest in 2011 and was subsequently opened officially by HRH Duchess of Cornwall. This state-of-the-art facility is the only fully gravity fed winery in the UK, allowing us to make wines with the minimal possible intervention. We have no need to pump our musts or wines under pressure, but instead can move them gently by gravity from one tank or process to the next. We have also installed top-of-the-range Coquard PAI presses to achieve the best extraction of juices in the most gentle manner possible.
Our winery facilities and the skills of our winemaking team are made available to a small number of contract winemaking clients. If you own vineyards and would like to discuss having your wine made under contract at Hambledon, please contact Ian Kellett.