Hambledon Vineyard Premiere Cuvee Rose

Hambledon Vineyard Premiere Cuvée Rosé is a hand-crafted English Sparkling Rosé produced from grapes grown in the Hampshire village of Hambledon.

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 the latest addition, a Blanc de Blancs.

The grapes for the Hambledon Vineyard Premiere Cuvée Rosé are sourced from the estate’s south-east facing chalk slopes of Windmill Down. The assemblage is a blend of saignée Pinot Meunier 87.5%, Pinot Noir 5.2% and Chardonnay 5.2%. The wine is non-vintage and is based around the 2016 harvest with some reserve wines from Hambledon’s “solera” tanks and barrels.  The wine is complex, yet light and crisp, crafted by hand in the traditional saignée method. A longer lees ageing adds depth and complexity: the wine was bottled in 2017 and disgorged in 2022.

The dosage is 5 g/l.