The Grange Estate Classic Sparkling, Hampshire

The Grange Estate Classic Sparkling is a dry English sparkling wine from Hampshire with crisp green-apple and brioche complexity. If you love this wine, explore its vibrant, berry-forward partner, The Grange Estate Pink Sparkling.

The Grange Estate is a Hampshire-based sparkling wine project. Their vineyard, named Burge’s Field, is located at The Grange Estate in Itchen Stoke near Alresford, approximately five miles east of Winchester. The estate was bought by John Baring (7th Lord Ashburton) in 1965 and remains in the Baring family today. The estate had previously been owned by the Baring family – originally purchased by the 1st Lord Ashburton some 200 years prior – before passing through various other owners and eventually returning to the family. The wine division of the business represents a coming together of John Baring’s four children and is run by managing partner Zam Baring. The Grange Estate also operates as an arable farm and hosts an annual opera and dance festival.

The Burge’s Field vineyard gently slopes southwards down towards the River Itchen, whose clear chalk streams are world famous for their fly fishing. The soils in the vineyard are composed of Cretaceous chalk dotted with hard silica flints, the same chalk soils that extend through Hampshire, the Sussex Downs and onward to Champagne. It is this chalky soil that is perfect for growing sparkling wine grapes and helps impart a steely minerality to the wines. The 52,000 Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier vines were planted in 2011, and the vineyard covers 30 hectares. The first Grange Estate wine was released in 2018. A new winery was completed in record time for the 2022 vintage, and the in-house head winemaker is Harry Pickering.

The grapes for The Grange Estate Classic Sparkling were hand-picked and whole-bunch pressed. Around 90% of the juice was fermented in stainless steel tanks, with the rest going into 4th-fill oak barrels. About 32% of the wine in stainless steel vats was allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation. The individual parcels of wine were then tasted, and 13 base wines were blended to produce the cuvee in January following the harvest. The wine then underwent the traditional secondary fermentation in the bottle, followed by lees ageing for nearly three years before disgorging.

The Grange Estate Classic Sparkling is a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir.

Based in Hampshire? You can buy The Grange Estate Classic Sparkling at our shop at 55 High Street, Fareham, or select free Click & Collect at checkout.