Coates & Seely

Coates & Seely: Hampshire's Award-Winning English Sparkling Wine Producer

Nestled in a quiet, V-shaped valley among the chalk downlands of northern Hampshire, Coates & Seely produces some of the most highly regarded English sparkling wines on the market today. Founded in 2008 by two old friends with backgrounds in finance and winemaking, the estate has, in less than two decades, established itself as one of Britain's flagship producers of traditional-method fizz, with wines poured at royal palaces, Michelin-starred restaurants and the legendary George V hotel in Paris.

A Quest Born from Friendship and French Terroir

The story of Coates & Seely begins in 2007, when former investment banker Nicholas Coates retired from Royal Bank of Scotland and ING Barings after a career spent catching the 5:41 a.m. train to London. During a visit to Bordeaux that autumn, Nicholas stayed with his old INSEAD business-school friend Christian Seely, then managing director of AXA Millésimes and custodian of celebrated estates including Château Pichon Baron, Château Suduiraut and Quinta do Noval. As the two Englishmen watched their national rugby side lose the 2007 World Cup final to South Africa, Christian opened a second bottle of Pol Roger and quoted the maxim variously attributed to Napoleon and Churchill: "In victory one deserves it. In defeat, one needs it." In the small hours of that night, the idea of an English sparkling wine venture was born.

By 2008 the two friends had acquired land in a secluded Hampshire valley above the village of Whitchurch and begun planting vines. Their shared conviction was simple: that the same chalk soils and cool maritime climate that produce Champagne's greatest wines could, on the right English site, yield sparkling wines of comparable elegance and longevity. They called their wine Coates & Seely.

The Hampshire Vineyard and Its Terroir

The Coates & Seely estate sits between two of southern England's most evocative landmarks. A mile to the south, the gin-clear chalk stream of the River Test glides through the villages of Overton and Whitchurch; three miles to the north rises the high chalk ridge of Watership Down, one of the highest points in Hampshire and an ancient iron-age vantage point. Between them lies a network of rolling downland, dissected by dry valleys, dotted with flint-faced farmsteads, and enclosed by single-track lanes and hedgerows where nightingales and owls still nest.

At an altitude of 50 to 100 metres, on either side of a sheltered V-shaped valley, the vineyards enjoy a near-perfect aspect. South-facing slopes capture the late summer sun; flint-strewn topsoils retain the day's heat through the long, slow ripening of an English autumn; and the enclosed valley helps trap warmth in those critical final weeks before harvest. Beneath the vines, the chalk subsoil - laid down in the Late Cretaceous period when Britain was still joined to continental Europe - provides excellent drainage while storing deep reservoirs of water, encouraging the vines to push their roots far below the surface.

Geologically, the chalk under Hampshire is the same chalk that extends under the Channel and resurfaces beneath the famous vineyards of Champagne. It is this shared terroir - combined with a south-facing slope, gentle breezes and cool, even ripening - that gives Coates & Seely its signature character: crisp natural acidity, beguiling fruit sweetness, and a saline minerality that the winemakers describe as "the hallmark of great sparkling wine".

The Winery: Concrete Eggs and Traditional Craft

Coates & Seely describe themselves, first and foremost, as artisans. Production is deliberately restricted so that every parcel of fruit can be given meticulous attention. The winery sits at the very heart of the vineyard - grapes travel from vine to bottle within a single square mile - and combines the most exacting traditional methods with a few very modern innovations.

Most strikingly, the estate is home to the only concrete fermentation eggs in England. The ovoid shape encourages gentle convection of the fermenting juice, building greater depth and complexity in the finished wine. After the first fermentation in these eggs (and in stainless steel), the base wines are bottled for the second fermentation, which creates the bubbles in the traditional méthode champenoise style - a method the house cheekily calls the Méthode Britannique.

Ageing on the lees is rigorous. Non-vintage wines typically spend two and a half to three years on lees before disgorgement, with a further 6 to 12 months on cork. Vintage wines, marketed under the La Perfide label, are lees-aged for a minimum of four to five years, with additional bottle-ageing post-disgorgement. Disgorgement itself uses the classic frozen-neck technique; dosage is judged vintage by vintage, but typically sits at 4 to 6 grams per litre for the non-vintage range.

The winemaking team is led by consultant Stéphane Derenoncourt, the Bordeaux-based oenologist whose clients include some of the most revered estates in the world, and his Champagne specialist Arnaud Gimonnet, eponymous son of the distinguished grower house Gimonnet et Fils. The estate's in-house technical director, Andras Lorincz, runs day-to-day operations alongside vineyard manager Paulo Veloso, a son of the Douro who has been with Coates & Seely from the very beginning.

Planting and the Vintage Programme

Coates & Seely's Hampshire vineyard is planted, as a traditional Champagne property would be, with the three noble varieties: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Each variety is blended differently into the various cuvées. Chardonnay brings floral citrus delicacy and a creamy mid-palate; Pinot Noir adds depth, complexity and a true reflection of terroir; Pinot Meunier contributes fruit-forward charm and tends to ripen first, giving the wines their early, supple fruit.

The 2009 harvest produced the estate's first wine, the now-iconic Blanc de Blancs 2009 Vintage 'La Perfide' - 100% Chardonnay, lees-aged for five years, and the wine that would announce Coates & Seely to the world. In the years since, vintage declarations have been made only in truly exceptional years. A Rosé 2009 'La Perfide' was the next release, followed by a Brut Reserve 2011 'La Perfide'; 2014 produced both a Blanc de Noirs and a Rosé; 2016 yielded the Vintage Blanc de Blancs launched in Paris in 2024. New vineyard plantings have been added over the years, including a more recent site at Brighstone on the Isle of Wight - a sun-drenched chalk valley a mile from the sea that the founders call "a winemaker's dream".

The Coates & Seely Range

Non-Vintage Wines

Brut Reserve NV - A classic blend of 40% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir and 10% Pinot Meunier, typically 2½ to 3 years on lees with 2 to 3 prior years' reserve wines blended in. Pale gold with ultra-fresh orchard-fruit aromas, a layered texture and a creamy finish. Scored 93 points by James Suckling and a best-in-show 97 points at the Decanter World Wine Awards. £38.75 per bottle (£465.00 per case of 12); £82.90 per magnum.
Rosé NV - 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Pinot Meunier; pale salmon pink with scents of rose-hips and strawberry. Winner of Gold and Silver Medals in numerous international competitions and scored 95 points by James Suckling. £39.75 per bottle (£477.00 per case of 12); £84.50 per magnum.
Blanc de Blancs NV - 100% Chardonnay, lees-aged for two to two-and-a-half years. Voted Best Wine in Show and Best English Sparkling Wine at the London International Trade Fair on its very first outing, and still winning medals. £45.00 per bottle (£540.00 per case of 12).

Vintage 'La Perfide' Wines

Blanc de Blancs 2009 Vintage 'La Perfide' - The original Coates & Seely wine, disgorged in 2015 after five years on lees and released after a further year on cork. Won the IWSC International Trophy for Best Bottle-Fermented Sparkling Wine in 2019 and Supreme Champion at the 2017 UK Wine Awards. £80.00 per bottle (currently on allocation).
Blanc de Noirs 2014 Vintage 'La Perfide' - 90% Pinot Noir, 10% Pinot Meunier; five years on lees followed by 18 months on cork. Scored 94 points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate - the highest score yet given to an English sparkling wine - and 93 points from James Suckling. £80.00 per bottle (currently on allocation).
Rosé 2014 Vintage 'La Perfide' - A blend of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, lees-aged for six-and-a-half years with a further 12 months on cork. Released in April 2022. Pale salmon pink with the full toasty, autolytic character of long lees-ageing combined with exuberant youthful fruit. £159.00 per magnum.
Late Disgorged Brut Reserve NV - A blend of 2015, 2014 and 2013 reserve wines, lees-aged for six-and-a-half years with a further 12 months on cork. Released in April 2022 in a limited edition of 750 magnums, this is technically a non-vintage but its extended lees ageing gives it the gravitas of a vintage wine. £116.50 per magnum.

Accessories

Gift Box - A single-bottle presentation box for any of the Coates & Seely wines. £2.50 per box.

All wines are sold direct from the cellar door via the online shop or by phone, with standard UK delivery charged at £8.70 per consignment (two to three working days) or £9.40 for special delivery (one to two working days). A 5% discount is offered on orders of 12 bottles or more of the non-vintage range.

Awards and Critical Acclaim

Few English producers can match Coates & Seely's trophy cabinet. The estate has won Gold Medals and Trophies at virtually every major national and international competition, including:

Best in Show, Decanter World Wine Awards 2022 - Brut Reserve NV, 97 points
IWSC International Trophy for Best Bottle-Fermented Sparkling Wine 2019 - Blanc de Blancs 2009 'La Perfide'
Supreme Champion, UK Wine Awards 2017 - Blanc de Blancs 2009 'La Perfide'
Trophy for Best Classic Cuvée, UK Wine Awards 2018 - Brut Reserve 2011 'La Perfide'
Trophy for Best Blanc de Blancs, IWC - Blanc de Blancs 2009 'La Perfide'
94 points, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate - Blanc de Noirs 2014 'La Perfide' (highest score ever for an English sparkling wine)
95 points, James Suckling - Rosé NV

Where Coates & Seely Is Poured

The Coates & Seely list of trade customers reads like a gazetteer of British and Parisian luxury. The wines are served at The Dorchester, The Savoy, The Ivy, The Fat Duck, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Petrus, Annabel's, Wiltons, The Goring, The Peninsula, The Clubhouse at Putney and the River Restaurant at the Savoy, to name a few. They are the official English sparkling wine of The Jockey Club, poured across fourteen racecourses including Aintree, Epsom, Sandown and Newmarket. They are served in the Historic Royal Palaces - Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, the Tower of London - and were on the table at the Buckingham Palace state banquet for Emperor Naruhito of Japan. Internationally, they remain the only English wine ever to be listed at the Four Seasons George V in Paris and at Hôtel Le Bristol, as well as at Alain Ducasse's flagship in Paris and Le Pressoir d'Argent in Bordeaux, where Gordon Ramsay serves them by the glass.

The Founders and the Team

Nicholas Coates, co-founder and director, lives on-site in Hampshire with his wife Virginia, who serves as Head of Events and the de facto in-house chef. A former investment banker who left the City in 2007, Nicholas is the public face of the estate and can often be found walking the vines, hosting visiting sommeliers or driving Albion - the 1954 British Leyland coach in Coates & Seely racing green, repatriated from Belgium in 2019 to serve as the brand's travelling ambassador at race meetings and events.

Christian Seely, co-founder and director, runs AXA Millésimes from Bordeaux and brings four decades of winemaking experience to the partnership. His stewardship of Pichon Baron, Suduiraut and Quinta do Noval informs Coates & Seely's uncompromising quality ethos.

Nicholas Bloy, founder of Navis Capital and a fellow INSEAD alumnus, is the third director. Tristram Coates, Nicholas's son, heads up sales and is the first second-generation member of the family firm. Stéphane Derenoncourt and Arnaud Gimonnet act as senior consultant winemakers. Paulo Veloso manages the vineyard; Andras Lorincz is technical director; and Georgina Balmain runs operations. Together with Virginia Coates, they form a small, tightly-knit team dedicated to one idea: the pursuit of the very best English sparkling wine.

Sustainability, Vegan Wines and the Isle of Wight

Coates & Seely is proud to be vegan-friendly. Having previously used isinglass as a fining agent, the winery has switched to a vegan alternative; the only additions to the grape juice are yeast, a small dose of sugar at disgorgement, and the fining agent itself. In the vineyard, sprays are kept to a minimum: no herbicides, no insecticides, and only sparing use of fungicides to keep mildews and botrytis at bay in the run-up to harvest.

More recently, the estate has expanded. In 2022 Nicholas and Christian acquired a stunning new site above the village of Brighstone on the Isle of Wight, planting vines across a sun-drenched, south-facing chalk valley a mile from the sea. The first fruit is expected from these new slopes within a few years and will, in due course, allow production to expand beyond the carefully rationed levels of the original 30-acre estate.

Visiting Coates & Seely

The estate is open by appointment only. During the pandemic the team ran private, socially-distanced tours of the vineyard and winery, transported in Albion and finished with tastings and lunch under Indian Mughal tents on the lawn. The current visitor programme is by private arrangement.

The full contact details are:

Address: Coates and Seely Ltd, The Harroway, Whitchurch, Hampshire, RG28 7QT
Telephone: +44 (0)1256 892 220
General enquiries: georgina.balmain@coatesandseely.com
Sales / allocations: sales@coatesandseely.com

Coates & Seely is active across social media: the winery can be followed on Facebook, Instagram and X (Twitter) for harvest updates, allocation releases and stories from the cellar.

The Private List and Friends of Coates & Seely

Production is small and demand is consistently strong, so the estate runs a Private List for its most loyal supporters. Subscribers receive the quarterly newsletter from Nicholas and Christian, priority notification of new vintage releases and allocation rights, and an invitation to the Annual Draw - the prize for which is a curated tour of the vineyard and winery for up to eight guests, complete with tastings and food matches. After purchasing 24 bottles, members are invited to join the Friends of Coates & Seely and enjoy a 15% discount off recommended retail prices on all non-vintage wines. Enquiries to join the Private List can be made via the sales email above.

How to Serve Coates & Seely

The winemakers recommend serving their wines at between 8 and 12°C, kept cool in an ice bucket when poured outside. A tulip glass is preferred to a flute for capturing the full range of aroma, while the coupe - though undeniably glamorous - tends to let the bubbles and bouquet escape too quickly. Fill the glass just over half-full so that the aromas remain concentrated in the neck. Non-vintage wines will keep for five to ten years; vintage wines for ten to twenty. And while many drinkers reserve sparkling wine for the aperitif, the Coates & Seely team actively encourage it throughout the meal - the high-acid Brut Reserve is a brilliant foil for oily fish, while the rosé, with its earthy red fruit, sings alongside venison, pâté and game.

Recent News from the Estate

The December 2025 Vineyard Diary reports what may be the most perfect viticultural year Coates & Seely has yet experienced: no spring frosts, a flawless June flowering, and a long, dry, hot summer. The team harvested three weeks earlier than ever before, and the early fermentations are said to be full of promise. The new vineyards on the Isle of Wight and additional Hampshire plantings are developing well. Coates & Seely continues to be the house-pour at the Peninsula Hotel's Christmas celebrations and at the new Maison Estelle private members' club in Mayfair.

In April 2025 the team hosted a pop-up bar on the terrace of the Orangery at Kensington Palace - the latest chapter in a ten-year partnership with Historic Royal Palaces. The year also brought listings across all of Gordon Ramsay's five prestige London restaurants (including Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Petrus) and a new partnership with Jamie Oliver's St Katherine Street restaurant in Covent Garden.

Further back, the 2022 Brut Reserve NV was crowned Best in Show at the Decanter World Wine Awards with 97 points; the 2009 Blanc de Blancs 'La Perfide' remains the only English wine ever to win the IWSC International Trophy; and the 2014 Blanc de Noirs 'La Perfide' holds the highest Robert Parker score ever given to an English sparkling wine.

Why Coates & Seely Matters

What distinguishes Coates & Seely from many of its peers is its unwavering commitment to place. The wines are not styled to imitate Champagne - they are made to express the specific genius of these Hampshire chalk slopes, with the winemaking guidance of some of the finest French consultants in the world. Production is small, ageing is long, and yields are deliberately low. The result is a portfolio of wines with genuine individuality: wines that are taut, saline, mineral and utterly English, yet recognisably cut from the same cloth as the great vintage Champagnes.

As Nicholas Coates has put it: "We are trying to produce the best sparkling wines in England, we are not the biggest and we don't aspire to be. But we never compromise on the quality." With allocations of the most sought-after vintages tightly held and a waiting list that stretches around the world, the wines are unlikely ever to be easy to find - but for those who do manage to secure a bottle, the experience is, in the words of one French journalist, "the most subtle sparkling wine we have ever tasted."