Hattingley Valley is a leading English sparkling-wine producer in Hampshire, founded by Simon Robinson with its first vines planted around 2008-2009. The estate sits on the chalk and clay-flint soils of the Hampshire Downs, part of the broad chalk seam that underpins much of England's finest traditional-method sparkling, lending the wines a bright, saline line of acidity. The Classic Reserve is a non-vintage cuvee built around a Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier blend, drawing on estate and contract fruit from Hampshire. For the release documented here the base wine came from the 2017 harvest, blended with a substantial proportion of older reserve wine to smooth vintage variation.

Made by the traditional method, the cuvee is roughly 45% Chardonnay, 35% Pinot Noir and 20% Pinot Meunier. The base wine is blended with about 37% reserve wine, and around 15% of the blend is barrel-fermented in three- and four-year-old white Burgundy barrels with partial malolactic conversion, adding texture without overt oak. After the base spends about eight months on its fermentation lees, the wine undergoes second fermentation in bottle and matures around four years on lees before disgorgement. Dosage is low, about 3 g/L, giving a taut, dry style with citrus, apple and gentle toasty complexity.