Henners introduce new sparkling wine concept

Henners, the English sparkling wine producer based near Herstmonceaux in East Sussex, has just announced a Multi-Vintage concept that will in time form a major part of its sparkling wine portfolio.

Multi-Vintage is a blend of the very best base wines from over multiple vintages, selected for their ageing potential, and kept aside as reserve wines. The wines are cellared in bottle at partial pressure on lees, until ready for addition to a Multi-Vintage prestige blend in years to come.

Henners says cellaring reserve wines in this labour intensive manner allows the wines to develop complexity on lees, preventing an oxidation, and so maintaining the greatest elegance and finesse. This differs from non-vintage wines, where the majority of base wine is from one vintage with a smaller percentage of different vintages blended in.

Henners’ first Multi-Vintage wines were cellared in 2011 and are due to be released in 2016.

The wines are all produced from grapes grown at Henners Vineyard.  Currently 10 acres are in production, planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.  A further 5 acres will be planted.

Henners was planted in 2007 and released the first of their wines, Vintage 2009, in November 2012.  A further two cuvées from the 2009 vintage – Vintage Reserve and Rosé – will be released later this month.

“As pioneers of Multi-Vintage, we continue our passion for crafting the very finest sparkling wines.  The broad pallet of outstanding reserve wines from multiple vintages allows us to create something very special,” commented Lawrence Warr, Henners’ owner and winemaker

Henners wines are distributed through Boutinot.

18 February 2013 - Felicity Murray