Page 151 - WDT MAGAZINE PORTUGAL

Tipsy Tripping in Hampshire

By Wibke Carter
he sun is blazing, not a cloud in
the sky. My eye wanders over
sprawling vineyards, the
waiter hands me a glass of
Tlocal champagne. No, hold on.
Stop. Rewind. The sun is blazing, not a
cloud in the sky. My eye wanders over
sprawling vineyards, the waiter hands
me a glass of local English sparkling
wine. Wait. What? I’m in England? My
surroundings and the hot weather feel
so alien, I have for a second forgotten
I’m in Hambledon, less than two hours
from London, and not somewhere more
southern where vineyards belong to the
landscape like well, flutes to
champagne.
“I imagine hell like this: Italian
punctuality, German humor and English
wine,” quipped the late actor Sir Peter
Ustinov in 2008. Little did he know that
more than a decade later British
bubbles are all the rage. There are now
more than 450 wineries producing 3.15
million bottles annually in the country.
The climate of the South and South East
England makes it a particularly popular
region for growing vines, especially in
Hampshire, Sussex and Kent.
“Geological mapping has shown
that the chalky grounds in this area are
identical to those in Champagne”,
explains Lisa Eagan on a tour through
Hambledon Vineyard. “In fact, the
French like our soil so much they have
started buying several acres in the UK
because there are not many affordable
ones left in France.” And considering the
hefty price tag of 1.1 million euro ($1.25
million) per hectare in Champagne, the
five digit sales in Hampshire seem like a
bargain.
Only 22 miles north of Hambledon
lies another award-winning vineyard,
Hattingley Valley. “Wine making here is
still a very young industry where
innovation is the key”, says marketing
manager Rebecca Fisher. “And wine