Hattingley Valley
As already mentioned, Hattingley is the English pioneer of the so-called ‘swap model’ whereby vineyards send in their grapes and receive a certain percentage back as their own wine.
Head winemaker Emma Rice told Hewson: “Both parties have an incentive to produce the best they can. Their share ends up in the same tanks as ours, so what we take and what they take is of exactly the same quality. The growers can’t just send us one part of their production and keep the best for themselves; it just doesn’t work like that.”
72% of the 500,000 litres of wine stored at the winery belongs to Hattingley, which is planted with 11 hectares of vines, the rest is owned by clients including High Clandon, Raimes, The Grange and Roebuck.
Most famously, Hattingley was selected as the partner for Champagne Pommery’s English wine, after the Champagne house first put down roots in the UK in 2014.
While Pommery’s English vines mature, it teamed up with Hattingley to produce Louis Pommery Brut, a blend of Chardonnay (55%), Pinot Noir (37%), Pinot Meunier (8%).
Hewson notes: “What Hattingley is starting to look like, then, is an English version of a high-quality co-operative. Yes, serious investment has gone in here, but there is no terroir dogma, glitzy front of house or smoke-and-mirrors PR operation to match; just a producer with a strategy of making the best wine possible and making it all – eventually – add up. If you were placing bets on which names will still be at the top of the tree in 20, 30, 40 years’ time, then Hattingley would have to be one of the first names on the list.”
