AMixedPair

Sans

This iteration of the CLASSIC NV is made predominantly with grapes from 2018, the fifth harvest from the Burge’s Field vineyard, and is the 8th wine from the much-garlanded team at Hattingley Valley, led by Emma Rice and Jacob Leadley.

Hand-picked and bunch pressed in late October, at the end of an utter peach of summer, 90% of the juice was fermented in stainless steel tanks with the remainder in a variety of fourth fill oak barrels. 40% of the final base wines went through malolactic fermentation to further soften the acidity and we ended up with 12 base wines and 1200l of the Reserve wines as an 13th. The final blend was 50% Chardonnay, 25% Pinot Meunier and 25% Pinot Noir with 5% coming from the reserves – adding generosity and ballast from the ’15, ’16 and ’17 CLASSICs. Secondary fermentation in bottle was followed by 33 months ageing on lees before the wine was disgorged in January 2022 and dosed to around 8g/l with 12.2% alcohol by volume.

This wine is an gorgeous follow-up to the multiple medal-winning 2016 and ’17 CLASSICs and exhibits a delightful fullness at this stage – the addition of small amounts of Reserve wine from the three previous years helping to round out and refine both nose and palate. A taste of Burge’s Field through the years!