Hattingley Valley

Emma Rice did not set out to become one of English wine's most influential figures. She set out to plant 57 acres of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier on a Hampshire chalk hillside, build a winery capable of processing them carefully, and make sparkling wines she was proud of. What she could not entirely have anticipated was that the winery she built would become a hub for the English wine industry — contract fermenting wines for other estates while simultaneously producing her own range of increasing ambition and acclaim.

The Kings Cuvée is the wine that has drawn the most attention. Named partly in honour of the royal warrant that the estate was awarded, and partly because Rice — who is not a person inclined to false modesty — understood that this was wine that deserved a name to match its quality, it is a vintage-dated prestige sparkling wine of real complexity. Made from the estate's best fruit in great years, aged on lees for a minimum of three years, and disgorged with a low dosage that allows the wine's natural character to speak, it has attracted gold medals and enthusiastic critical commentary from Decanter, the IWC, and wine writers who had not previously given Hampshire the credit it deserves.

The winemaking philosophy at Hattingley reflects Rice's training at several Champagne houses: precision in the vineyard, patience in the cellar, and a willingness to declassify fruit rather than compromise the final wine. The estate's chalk and flint soils above the Test Valley deliver fruit with the natural acidity that makes sparkling wine work, and Rice deploys it with the assurance of someone who understands exactly what she is doing and why.