Hazel End Vineyard Stackyard Charmat 2023

At Hazel End, there are vines on Stackyard Close, where the haystacks used to be. They’re Muller-Thurgau, Huxelrebe and Reichensteiner, and they’re been growing there for thirty years. They’ve now been used to create this fresh, fruit forward sparkling wine. Secondary fermentation via the Charmat method (used to make Prosecco) gives a light, crisp flavour designed for easy drinking. This wine is refreshing, with lemon, green apple and blossom notes.

It was the hot summer of 1976 that induced Charles and Petronella Humphreys to plant vines on a particularly dry slope on their farm just a mile to the north of Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire. It took nearly twenty years and two changes of site before the first commercial crop was harvested in 1996 but, since then, the wines from Hazel End have enjoyed a growing reputation.