Birthplace of English Wine

Birthplace of English Wine

For hundreds of years after the ‘little ice age’ of the medieval period, English wine was a thing of the past. It was only when Major General Sir Guy Salisbury-Jones was looking out of his dining room window and, with his stepson John, hit on the idea of planting vines in an unused field, that the seeds of English wine’s rebirth were sown.

It began as a small family affair. With the help and advice of friends from the renowned Champagne House Pol Roger, the vines were planted in 1952 and the first grapes were pressed for still wine in 1955. The wines quickly gained renown, even being served by Queen Elizabeth II to the French President in Paris in 1972. (Though they almost didn’t make the banquet as, English wine not being on the official imported goods list from England, French officials initially refused to acknowledge that the bottles even existed … despite five cases right in front of them.)

Following a change of ownership, wine making activities were curtailed at Hambledon in the mid 1990’s and the vineyard was shrunk to just 4 acres, producing grapes for sale to other wineries. That was until Ian Kellett acquired Hambledon Vineyard in 1999.