Hambledon Vineyard in Hampshire (in the Wessex wine region), is known today for its top-quality English sparkling wines and is widely regarded as the birthplace of English wine and home to England’s oldest commercial vineyard, dating back to 1952. When you add to this the fact that historic Hambledon village is also regarded as the birthplace of English cricket and is situated in a beautiful part of Hampshire, then we could not resist a visit!!

Birthplace of English wines - with a French twist!

As we drove through the entrance to Hambledon Vineyard and up the chalk stone driveway, our first thought was ‘we could be in Champagne in France’! The first impression just screamed Champagne, with the beautifully tended rows of vines, the blazing sun, the deep vineyard slopes and the manor house.

We soon learned that Hambledon’s history does indeed have a strong French influence, which is carried through today in the winemaking operation.

A unique history for this Hampshire vineyard

Most English vineyards have a relatively short history and this is what makes Hambledon so unique and so special to visit.

Back in 1951 Major General Sir Guy Salisbury-Jones, a retired general, decided to plant a vineyard in the steep chalk soil in front of his home, Mill Down House and sought the help and advice of friends at Champagne House, Pol Roger in France. He went on to release a range of commercial wines which enjoyed a strong following and won several awards. Hambledon wine was even served by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 2nd to President Pompidou during a reception at the British embassy in Paris.

See this wonderful video of the grape harvest at Hambledon in 1961!

Sadly, following a change of ownership the vineyard fell into decline until 1999, when Ian Kellett, a passionate wine lover, could not resist the opportunity to restore Hambledon to its former glory. He was convinced that the prime chalk soils, the same as the famous Cote des Blancs in Epernay, Champagne and the cool English climate, could produce top-quality sparkling wines to rival French Champagne.

So he re-established the link with Pol Roger in France, secured a top French and Champagne winemaker to lead his winemaking team and set about implementing his vision.

Hambledon Vineyard

Today Ian has built up 200 acres of vineyards, planted mainly with the 3 Champagne grape varieties, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Central to Hambledon’s vision and philosophy is to own their land and farm their own vineyards, ensuring complete control over the winemaking process, from grape to bottle. This is a different model to other English vineyards, for example another Hampshire company, Hattingley Valley Wines, who also buy grapes from other vineyard owners.

Hambledon aims for as little intervention as possible in the vineyard - they aren’t certified as organic, but very few English vineyards are due to the commercial challenges this presents. 

The chalk soils and the cool English climate - but with enough sunshine on the south-east facing slopes - enables Hambledon to grow the finest grapes to make their sparkling wines.

Hambledon Winery

Minimum intervention is followed through into the onsite state-of-the-art winery, which was opened in 2011. 

The grapes don’t have to travel far from the vineyard to the winery where they are gently pressed in one of their top-of-the-range French Coquard presses to achieve the best juice extraction in the most gentle manner possible. Hambledon has more than 1 press to provide additional flexibility at harvest time and in their winemaking.

Hambledon’s winery process is unique in the UK, in that it is ‘gravity-fed’, which ensures the juice and wine flows naturally from one tank or process to the next, without having to be pumped under pressure.

In addition to making its own wines, Hambledon is also a contract winemaker for other vineyards, which means the winery equipment is kept busy and costs can be spread across a larger production.

Hambledon English sparkling wines

Hambledon’s focus is on English sparkling wines made by the traditional method as for Champagne. They do not produce ‘vintage’ wines each year, only non-vintage (NV). This means that they don’t produce wines from grapes from a single year, but prefer to blend grapes from a harvest with aged, reserve wines to achieve a balanced and particular style.

Their wines have lots of refreshing acidity and fruit and a slight hint of saltiness from the sea, which is just a few miles away.

Our morning wine tour to Hambledon

We decided to visit Hambledon on our way through Hampshire and into Sussex and Kent, where we had other vineyard and winery tours planned. The drive through the South Downs was beautiful and we couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather. We were blown away by the beauty of the vineyards and estate but also the sense of place and history, which you don’t experience in many other UK vineyards.  

Vineyard tour

We started our wine tour by spending about 40 minutes in the vineyard,  learning about the vines and grapes and soaking up the incredible views across the vineyards and countryside. We could also enjoy the view that Major General Sir Guy Salisbury-Jones had over 70 years ago, when he looked across the same slopes and decided to plant his vineyard!

Winery tour

Our guide walked us through each stage of the winemaking process in the winery. Starting with the huge French presses, through to the stainless steel Vats and oak barrels where the 1st fermentation takes place, then through to the cellar where the 2nd fermentation takes place in the bottles. Hambledon has a huge underground cellar, with capacity for up to 2million bottles (1 million Hambledon bottles), where the temperature is perfect for storing the bottles. Here the bottles are gently turned (or riddled) in the huge gyro-pallets so the yeast ends up captured in the neck of the bottle.

We then had the opportunity to see the ‘disgorging’ process in action in real-time - a production line of people and machinery freezing the neck of the bottles, ejecting the frozen plug of dead yeast, then topping the bottles up with grape juice and a select dosage of sugar, before they process through to corking and then labelling. 

Wine tasting

We tasted both of Hambledon’s ‘Classic’ wines - the Classic Cuvée NV and the Classic Cuvée Rosé NV. We loved both of them - the white was really fresh with lovely citrus fruit flavours and a slight bready, toasty flavour from the yeast and the minimal oak fermentation. The Rosé was like diving into a bowl of fresh strawberries - yum! You could also purchase a tasting flight of Hambledon’s première sparkling wines, which I’m sure are delicious - but we had to get back on the road, so perhaps for another day!

Where to buy Hambledon wines:

You can find Hambledon wines in both Majestic and Waitrose as well as other local independents and The Wine Society. Of course you can also purchase online directly from Hambledon and via their Cellar Door.

Useful information for your Hambledon visit

Wine tours and wine tasting options

We paid £17 each for our 2 hour tour which was good value - only 2 wines - but a really good tour into the vineyard, around the winery and in the cellar! You can pay more to have a cheese board - or you can book an afternoon tour for 2 people - with afternoon tea!

See here for tour options and a schedule of events.

We would love to go back to Hambledon to ‘Dine in the Vines’ - which delivers exactly ‘what it says on the tin’! You get to sit amongst the vine and enjoy a lunch of lovely local Hampshire delicacies and of course some sparkling wine! We saw people doing this and it looked like great fun. Friends of ours have also done it and really enjoyed it.

What to see and do in the area

There is certainly no shortage of things to see and do in Hampshire - with the coastal resorts of Portsmouth and Southampton not too far away, the beautiful city of Winchester with its cathedral just a 20 minutes drive and the South Downs and New Forest national parks within striking distance! See here for lots of ideas!

As we have visited Hampshire wineries and vineyards we have been struck by how varied and beautiful the county is - so try to make the most of your time and plan a wine tour with some other tourist activities - you won’t regret it!

Where to stay and where to eat near Hambledon

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Hambledon Village is also the birthplace of English cricket! In fact Hambledon Vineyard pays homage to this in their emblem, which includes cricket bats, stumps and a ball!

So where better to have a spot of lunch than at the nearby Bat and Ball pub, which is apparently where it all started!

See accommodation and restaurants in the area.

Transport

For detailed instructions if you’re travelling by car, see here.

The nearest train station is Petersfield station (1 hour from London Waterloo). Taxis from Petersfield station to Hambledon Vineyard take approximately 15 minutes.

Address: Hambledon Vineyard, Hambledon, Hampshire, PO7 4RY

Other UK vineyards to visit in the area:

Hampshire and surrounding counties are home to some wonderful vineyards and wineries. Here are others we would recommend visiting:

• Black Chalk Winery

• Hattingley Valley (see our blog about our wine tour to Hattingley here)

• Wiston Estate (see our blog about our wine tour to Wiston here)

• Ridgeview Wine Estate

Conclusion

Being the place where the English wine industry really started, it just had to be on our list to visit - and we weren’t disappointed.

The setting is stunning - pure English countryside - with a French twist! The information provided on the tour is excellent and very comprehensive - and you get the opportunity to really see the workings of a top winery!

The wines we tasted were wonderful and you get a tasting booklet which is always a nice touch. Overall we think the Hambledon tour is good value for money and it’s really a must for any wine lover, wine enthusiast and wine tourist!

You can’t escape noticing when visiting Hambledon that they are very busy building a brand new visitor centre which is planned to open early 2022. This will add a whole new dimension to the wine experience here and we can’t wait to go back next year to sample this, along with ‘Dine in the vines’!

It’s interesting that our guide explained that all of the focus up to now has been on the wine and securing land and the development of the vineyards - now it’s time for wine tourism and to share their story more widely with more people - made perfect sense to us!

Visit Hambledon’s website for information and to book your visit.

Refer to our web pages for more information about UK wines and the Wessex wine region of the UK

We hope you enjoy it as much as we did and maybe you can let us know what you think of the wines??

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