If you love Chardonnay, or fancy trying something new, then you will absolutely enjoy these 3 wines from Kent and Hampshire. All the wines have been curated and selected by Clive Barlow, our resident Master of Wine, and all boxes include his notes on the wines.

Chardonnay has had a bit of a bad rap over the years. We’ve all heard, or perhaps even muttered ourselves, “Anything but Chardonnay” - a phrase coined following the white wine’s spectacular fall from grace in the 1990s. However, the Chardonnay grape is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious and respected still and sparkling white wines. In France, it’s the only varietal permitted to be grown in Burgundy’s celebrated northern-most wine region, Chablis, and it’s the main grape variety used in the ‘Big three’ Champagne blend, along with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. This wine box contains three of our favourite English Chardonnays, Hattingley Valley Premium Chardonnay 2020, Heppington Chardonnay 2020, and Balfour Hush Heath Springfield Chardonnay 2018.

Hattingley Valley Premium Chardonnay 2020 (RRP £19.50): With these wonderful ripe grapes they have created a delicious fresh Chardonnay which we believe is in the top drawer of still English Chardonnay. English Chardonnay is light in weight but has a vinous strength of fine acidity and sinewy body which delivers a range of citrus fruits and a taut minerality. The 2020 Hattingley has a light yet persistent scent of cream, lees and lemon with a wonderfully balanced crisp palate of ripe acidity, citrus and green apple notes. The finish is long and lingers on and on gently fading away leaving the palate clean and refreshed.

Heppington Chardonnay 2020 (RRP £17.50) : The result is a clean, crisp white with a fine line of mineral acidity creating a fine structure for the green apple and lemon fruit to follow. To date the Heppington wines have a sense of coolness, poise and minerality, typical of cool climate wines from specific soils. To my mind the wine has a Chablis feel but delivers a purer, subtle fruit. It is still young and will develop over the coming two years delivering more integration and savoury notes. At moment it is a great wine to sip and and enjoy on its own but would partner seafood, salmon or white fish, simply prepared.

Balfour Hush Heath Springfield Chardonnay 2018 (RRP £24.99): Touches of cream and cobnut compliment the yellow apple fruit. Fermented in cool stainless steel, it is then partly aged in French and American Oak to add depth and complexity to the flavour, resulting in an intense yet elegant wine. The winemakers are Owen Elias and Victoria Ash, who are increasingly winning plaudits for their array of wines and their creative process, with this Chardonnay undergoing cool fermentation in stainless steel and a proportion of the wine was aged in French and American Oak barrels for 5 months. It has won wide acclaim from critics, with Jane MacQuitty of The Times says it is one of her Top 20 English wines.

Vegan Friendly