When famous French Champagne house Vranken-Pommery decided to extend its portfolio with an English sparkling wine, it chose Hampshire as the place to put down its roots, citing the quality of the chalk as ‘something very special’.
After acquiring the 40-hectare Pinglestone Estate, in Old Alresford, in 2014, Pommery planted vines there in 2017 and, while waiting for the plants to grow, set about becoming the first Champagne house to release a sparkling wine in the UK, initially partnering with neighbouring Hampshire vineyard Hattingley Valley while waiting for its own plants to mature.
While the project was overseen by Pommery’s vineyard director Clément Pierlot, when it was time to make wine from the brand’s own grapes in 2022, they drafted in local Hampshire winemaker, Will Perkins.
Not only is Will, who grew up in Preston Candover, Hampshire born-and-bred but he knows the land well – as a child, he even played football on fields that sit below the vines he now tends to.
‘I’m not from an agricultural background in any way, shape or form but growing up, out in the sticks, you were always surrounded by it,’ says the former Preston Candover Primary School pupil. ‘My childhood was an immersion in the outdoors and Hampshire’s bountiful nature.’
‘Sixteen or so years ago the English wine industry was only really just emerging, so I was largely in the right place at the right time,’ he says. ‘I worked as a summer casual at a nearby farm and the family who owned it decided to diversify and plant vines. That was the nascent stages of Hattingley Valley.’
Will says he was ‘super fortunate’ to experience the planting of a vineyard and work alongside Hattingley’s passionate vineyard manager, James Bowerman, but at the time had no interest in viticulture as a career path.
‘It just wasn’t on my radar as something I’d do as a career,’ he says. ‘I look back and there was certainly a seed sown in me, but it only sort of physically and metaphorically took root seven years or so later.’
After finishing school, Will travelled to South Africa to study History, Politics and Spanish at university in Cape Town. It was here, after embarking in a career in humanitarianism that didn’t quite fulfil his expectations, that he enrolled in some wine tasting courses at Cape Wine Academy and started working in the tasting room at Constantia Glen.
Luck would have it that when Will returned home to Hampshire in 2013, a harvest cellar hand position at Hattingley Valley presented itself. Soon Will had embarked on a degree in viticulture and oenology at Plumpton College and was promoted to assistant winemaker.
During that time, Hattingley Valley won copious awards for its homegrown wines – the first of which were released in 2013 – but Will was also given the freedom to explore, experiment and experience further afield.
‘Simon Robinson, the owner of Hattingley Valley, was very passionate about encouraging employees to take opportunities to go on foreign secondments and interact with individuals within the industry and regions across the globe that had a history within wine that was far richer than the UK's – to go and be a sponge and then bring some of that savoir faire, energy and perspective back,’ Will explains. ‘The beauty I find of the world of wine, certainly from the production or the growing side of things, is that you can largely spin a globe, put a pin in the map and, as long as the visas are within reach, go and find out what that part of the world is like. There's always something to be gleaned from an overseas harvest experience.’
And glean he did. From Spain to California and New Zealand to South Africa, he spent time zipping from Northern to Southern hemisphere to experience as many different types of harvest he could, meeting his wife, Verity, along the way.
Having navigated the pandemic abroad, in 2022 Will was approached to return to his homeland and work on Vraken Pommery’s English project, just a few miles up the road from where he grew up.
‘To re-engage with the land and community that I had literally grown up on and to be able to harness the experience of all of the philosophical underpinnings that I've been so fortunate to be exposed to through my travels and at Hattingley and put that into this extraordinary project just felt like this amazing homecoming,’ says Will, who now lives in Winchester with Verity, a yoga teacher and life coach.
Pinglestone Estate, which includes plantings of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Gris, sits on a natural hill, which climbs to 95 metres above sea level. The majority of the vines face south (the best aspect for vines to get the most sun exposure in the northern hemisphere) although the vineyard has been planted on a 360-degree compass and in individual parcels, to enable Will and the team to dial into the idiosyncrasies of each site and micro-pockets of soil.
Louis Pommery England has now released two non-vintage sparkling wines from grapes grown on the estate – a Brut, which is widely available at supermarkets, and slightly more exclusive Brut Rosé available at restaurants and select local independent wine shops – while a Blanc de Blanc is due to be released in time for Christmas. For now, the wines are still made at Hattingley Valley but plans have been approved to build a winery on the estate, which is expected to be ready in time for next year’s harvest.
‘I have an immense professional respect for Jim and a wonderful personal relationship with him too so the fact we are now curating this amazing project together is quite something,’ he says. ‘I'm unbelievably fortunate that every single day I go to work, I'm able to walk into the vineyard and look down on a football pitch I used to play on with my mates aged five. There is only one hillside on the planet that evokes that memory for me and it's here. That’s a truly humbling and grounding daily reminder of how special this project is. For life is by no means linear, and this circle seems to have rounded itself fittingly.’
louis-pommery.com
3 new Hampshire sparkling wines to try
Black Chalk Inversion 2020, £65
From the Test Valley-based vineyard’s new tier of premium sparkling wines, Inversion is a blend of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, which focuses particularly on specific clones of the grapes, notably the powerful Pinot Noir 777. Just 1939 bottles have been made of this extremely elegant Blanc de Noirs, which has a level of complexity and depth rarely found in English sparkling wine.
blackchalkwine.co.uk
Candover Brook Brut NV, £37
Candover Brook is run by Mark and Julian Sainsbury, sons of Lord Sainsbury, on the family estate in Preston Candover. The pretty bottle label features illustrations that reflect the brook as one of the few remaining habitats of the rare English white-clawed crayfish. Although non-vintage it is based on grapes grown in the long hot summer of 2018 and is consequently bursting with orchard fruit but is perfectly balanced with citrus acidity and a hint of nuttiness.
candoverbrook.co.uk
Penn Croft Sparking Rosé 2020, £39
The debut rosé from this sustainably-led vineyard in Crondall – also home to Itasca Wines contract wine service – is a pretty copper pink with notes of citrus, wild strawberry and shortbread, all of which follow through on the palate, which also displays an elegant, fine mousse. One for sipping in the sunshine.
penncroftvineyards.com
