Exton Park Vineyard

Exton Park is not a name you will see on every wine list. It is smaller than Nyetimber, less famous than Chapel Down, and less architecturally spectacular than Rathfinny. What it is, in the opinion of a growing number of serious wine tasters who encounter it blind, is among England's finest sparkling wine producers — and the Blanc de Blancs, in particular, has a claim to being the most purely Champagne-like wine made in England.

Corinne Seely, who manages the estate and oversees winemaking, brings a rigour to the 60 acres of Meon Valley chalk that reflects decades of experience in Bordeaux and Champagne. The viticulture is precise, the yields are controlled, and the decision of when to harvest — always a judgement call in England's uncertain autumn — is made with the kind of confidence that comes from understanding exactly what you are looking for.

The resulting Blanc de Blancs is an extraordinary wine. Pale gold, with fine persistent bubbles and an extraordinary nose of chalk mineral, white flower, and the faintest lemon pith — it unfolds slowly in the glass with the kind of composed patience that great sparkling wine possesses. The palate delivers more of the same: linear, tensile, with a persistent saline finish that demands either oysters or serious contemplation. It is not a wine for the uninitiated, but that is not a criticism.