Hundred Hills - 'Illustration #1', Oxford, United Kingdom (2018)

TASTING NOTES

A beautiful ‘first-pass’ selection of only the very ripest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Yellow plums and apricots, ripe red apple skins and raspberries, with a salinity and touches of baking spices on the finish.

With 40 months on the lees, fermentation in wood, and a partial-malo this is a unique sparkling finished in extra brut form. 

In a beautiful chalk valley in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside, Hundred Hills first harvest here was only in 2016! It is quickly becoming one of England’s most quality driven and sought after sparkling wine producers.

Hundred Hills' Stephen and Fiona Duckett sought input from Michel Salgues, a University of Montpellier professor whose former pupils included Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon, Chef de Caves at Roederer. His presence helped open doors in Champagne, allowing the team and Hundred Hills to learn from the very best.

In 2014 they started planted vines, using Chardonnay and Pinot Noir clones that were typically found in Champagne in the 1960s. With 17 hectares, yields are low, grapes are picked late and all the wines are vintage.