Hoffmann & Rathbone

Hoffmann & Rathbone is a boutique winery in the Sussex Weald, founded by husband and wife Ulrich Hoffmann and Birgit Rathbone out of a shared passion for artisanal wine. They work from New House Winery at Mountfield in East Sussex, and everything here carries the mark of a small operation where the people who own the estate are the people making the wine.

Ulrich brings more than two decades of winemaking gathered across the world. He worked at the Rolf Willy estate in Baden-Württemberg, then at Châteaux de Fieuzal and Haut-Gardère in Bordeaux, Artadi in Spain and Cain Vineyards in the Napa Valley. He might have carried on abroad had he not fallen for the Sussex countryside and its cool climate, which suits sparkling wine as well as anywhere in England.

The winemaking is deliberately unhurried. Everything is made in tiny quantities by the traditional method, with a portion fermented in large older oak casks and the wines then left on their lees for far longer than most, in some cases beyond seven years. That patience shows in the glass as depth and texture rather than simple freshness, with baked apple and citrus giving way to toasted nuts, pastry and a fine, persistent mousse.

The sparkling range runs from the Classic Cuvée through Rosé Réserve to Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noir, alongside a small collection of still wines. The wines have taken gold at both the Decanter World Wine Awards and the London Wine Competition, and are poured in some of the country's more serious restaurants and wine bars.

English sparkling at its most considered, from a producer who would rather make a little very well than a lot adequately.