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Domaine Hugo (Botley's)

Wiltshire, Wessex, England

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Phone

+44(0)7970 655240

Email

[email protected]

Address

Domaine Hugo, Botley's Farm, Wick Lane, Downton, Salisbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom

Opening Hours

Visitors by appointment only

Location

Wiltshire · Wessex

Grape Varieties (5)

Chardonnay Meunier Pinot Gris Pinot Noir Precoce

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Domaine Hugo: Biodynamic Sparkling Wine from the Wiltshire Downlands

Nestled in the rolling chalk downland south of Salisbury, Domaine Hugo is one of the most singular voices to have emerged in English wine in recent years. Its owner, Hugo Stewart, planted Champagne varieties on the chalk soils of the family farm in 2016, produced a first vintage by 2018, and now bottles some of the most uncompromisingly natural, biodynamically farmed traditional-method sparkling wines made anywhere in Britain.

What distinguishes Domaine Hugo from its peers is the unusual depth of its farming story. The vineyard sits on land that has been in the same family for five generations, and Hugo's journey to wine took him from conventional pig and cereal farming in Wiltshire to running a biodynamic estate in southern France, before he returned home to convert the family holding. Today the wines are made by Daniel Ham of Offbeat Wines, a collaboration that anchors the project in a quiet, intuitive winemaking tradition.

Location and Setting

The vineyard is part of Botley's Farm at Wick Lane, Downton - address Botley's Farm, Wick Lane, Downton, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP5 3NW, just a few miles south of Salisbury on the edge of the Cranborne Chase landscape. The site is a textbook example of why chalk downland is now considered prime real estate for traditional-method sparkling wine in southern England.

  • Soil: thin soils over chalk, the same Jurassic limestone that crosses under the Channel and re-emerges in Champagne.
  • Aspect: south-facing, capturing maximum sunlight and warmth.
  • Altitude: approximately 90 metres above sea level.
  • Landscape: open chalk downland bordered by hedges, allowing free airflow that dries the canopy after rain and keeps disease pressure low.

It is the combination of those four factors - chalk, sun, slope and wind - that defines the wines' character, and which Hugo and Daniel try to express with as little intervention as possible.

Family, Farm and Founder

Hugo Stewart is the fourth or fifth generation of his family to farm the Downton land. His early career in the 1970s was spent in conventional mixed agriculture - pigs and cereals - at a time when the wiltshire downs were dominated by intensive arable operations. The change of heart came in stages.

Les Clos Perdus in the Languedoc

Hugo went on to co-found Les Clos Perdus, a biodynamic vineyard and winery in the Languedoc, where his interest in biodynamic farming and natural winemaking took root. There he worked alongside Paul Old, an early British champion of biodynamics, and refined much of the practical knowledge he now applies at Domaine Hugo. Hugely formative experience, but also geographically far from home.

Return to the Family Farm

In 2016 Hugo returned to Wiltshire, planting what would become Domaine Hugo's vineyard on the chalk soils of the family farm. By 2018 the estate had its first vintage. The move represented a dramatic shift in the holding's farming practices, away from conventional mixed agriculture and towards soil health, biodiversity and viticulture.

Hugo's viticulture has since caught the attention of biodynamic pioneer Nicolas Joly of Coulée de Serrant. In 2023 Domaine Hugo was admitted to Renaissance des Appellations - Return to Terroir, the small international group of biodynamic producers recognised for putting the concept of terroir into practice. As Hugo himself puts it, the goal is to give Daniel the highest quality fruit possible, year on year, and to produce wines that are "exceptional and full of character".

The Vineyard

The vineyard is small, south-facing and carefully matched to the varieties it hosts. It is planted with the classic Champagne trio plus two of the more recherché Pinot varieties:

  • Chardonnay
  • Pinot Noir
  • Pinot Meunier
  • Pinot Gris
  • Pinot Blanc

The vineyard is certified organic and certified biodynamic (Demeter). The farming regime is gentler than you might expect for commercial English viticulture.

Soil and Cover Cropping

Beneath the vines, more than twenty species of grasses, clovers, legumes and herbs are deliberately encouraged. Each contributes differently to the soil - some fix nitrogen, others draw minerals up from deeper horizons, others shade the surface and feed the mycorrhizal network. Together they soak up sunlight, add energy to the soil and lock carbon into the ground. Hugo describes this as wanting "nature to prevail", treating disease pressure preemptively with small quantities of natural products only when absolutely necessary.

Animals in the Vineyard

Sheep graze the vineyard in winter, keeping the sward short and recycling fertility directly onto the rows. The headlands are deliberately left un-mown as a wildlife habitat, in line with the estate's wider biodiversity goals.

Canopy Work and Pruning

Pruning is gentle: large cuts that would obstruct sap flow are avoided. Through summer, the lower leaves are pulled to expose the bunches to sun and air, and - critically - excess bunches are cut away so the remaining fruit can ripen fully. The team is small (a mix of professionals and dedicated amateur pickers) and harvesting is fired up only once the fruit has reached full ripeness.

Winemaking with Daniel Ham

From the start Hugo chose to make the wines on site, on the farm, and chose Daniel Ham of Offbeat Wines as his winemaker. Daniel's relationship with Hugo runs back to the Les Clos Perdus days, and the two describe themselves as constantly "challenging every aspect of wine growing and making".

The winemaking itself is extreme even by low-intervention English standards.

Pressing

Grapes go through a traditional Coquard basket press. Hugo first adopted this press for the 2020 vintage; in earlier years the estate used a conventional horizontal press. The basket press allows the clear juice to flow out gently over several hours, rather than being squeezed out under mechanical force - a small detail with a meaningful impact on the structure and texture of the finished wine.

Fermentation

Ferments are spontaneous, taken by the wild yeasts already living on the grape skins. There is no added sulphur, no added yeast (with one exception, outlined below), and no fining. As the estate puts it: "we want nothing artificial to get in the way of that expression". The base wines ferment in a mix of 5- or 6-fill Burgundy barrels and clay amphora. About 10% of the 2020 base wine, for example, was fermented in amphora - a first for the estate - with the rest in Burgundy barrels.

Secondary Ferment and Bottling

The secondary ferment for the traditional-method wines uses a biodynamic Champagne yeast from Champagne Fleury. Everything else - transferring, blending, bottling - is done by gravity; no pumps are used at any stage. The wines are unfiltered. The single exception is the BOTLEYS Col Fondo, where the in-bottle secondary fermentation is achieved by adding the following year's still-fermenting must to the previous vintage's wine (a Col Fondo method), which means there is no disgorgement at all.

Maturation and Disgorgement

Time on lees varies between the wines:

  • HUGO MV Brut Nature - 21 months on lees, disgorged in March 2025, no dosage.
  • HUGO Rosé 2022 - 18 months on lees, disgorged January 2025, no dosage.
  • BOTLEYS Col Fondo - bottled during the next vintage's fermentation; never filtered or disgorged.

For Hugo and Daniel, the goal of all this work is to produce wines with enough depth of flavour to match the acidity, filling the palate with texture and length rather than sharpness.

The Wines

Domaine Hugo currently releases three wines, all within the same low-intervention framework but stylistically distinct.

HUGO Multi-Vintage Traditional Method Brut Nature

The flagship is the traditional-method Brut Nature Sparkling. It is bottled as a multi-vintage (MV), composed in the current release of 65% 2022, 30% 2021 and 5% 2020 base wines - a rolling solera-like approach that gives the wine consistent house character without the same exact recipe each year. 12.0% ABV.

The field blend (co-fermented from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Gris) is bottled with no added sulphur, no added yeast apart from the Fleury biodynamic yeast in the secondary ferment, and no dosage. Maturity on lees is 21 months.

Across recent vintages the wine has drawn consistent praise: Jancis Robinson scored the 2020 vintage 17 and described it as standing out from the crowd, admirably fruity for a zero-dosage wine, with an unusually long finish for such low alcohol. The current MV blend continues in that tradition.

HUGO Rosé 2022

The estate's rosé is a sparkling Brut Nature made from 57% Chardonnay, 22% Pinot Noir, 16% Pinot Meunier and 5% Pinot Gris, pressed as a white wine then blended with about 10% of a red wine made from equal parts Pinot Noir and Meunier. As with the white, fermentation is in 5/6-fill Burgundy barrels from a Coquard basket press, no sulphur, no yeast additions, gravity racking, no filtration, no dosage.

Disgorged in January 2025 after 18 months on lees at 12.0% ABV, the 2022 is one of those sparkling rosés that Jancis Robinson noted "could almost be a white" - with a very pale colour, a fine constant bead, restrained Pinot-driven perfume and a palate that is brisk, broad and faintly evolved. Single-vintage bottling, in contrast to the multi-vintage white.

BOTLEYS Col Fondo

The most idiosyncratic wine in the range is BOTLEYS, a white semi-sparkling produced in the Col Fondo or "sur lie" style. The base wine, made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Gris from the last pressings (the taille), ferments in tank with no added yeast or sulphur. After a year it is bottled, crown-capped, and primed with the still-fermenting must from the following harvest - triggering an in-bottle secondary fermentation that is never disgorged. The finished wine is unfined, unfiltered and, in the estate's own description, "100% terroir".

BOTLEYS is not currently available, but when it returns the run is intentionally tiny. Jamie Goode has scored the wine 92/100, praising its fresh pear, cherry and citrus character, textural depth and savoury finish. At retailers, BOTLEYS retails in the region of £30 a bottle.

Reviews and Recognition

Domaine Hugo's reputation has been built one wine at a time, with serious critical attention from the start.

The Critics

  • Jancis Robinson MW has reviewed nearly every release. She scored the 2018 vintage 17+; the 2020 vintage 17; praised the 2021 single-vintage for its "masses of personality" and "very clearly" terroir-reflective organic farming; and noted the HUGO Rosé 2022 ("only just ready to drink but very rewarding"). Most quoted is her note on the 2020: "top marks for standing out from the crowd… admirably fruity… long. Really quite impressive."
  • Tim Hall, the Champagne specialist and commentator, praised Domaine Hugo as a "brilliant newcomer to the UK fizz scene and beyond", calling it "superior stuff" with Champagne-ranking credentials and a "broad big sky sense of open texture" he liked to think of as the signature of Wiltshire.
  • Jamie Goode gave the 2019 Traditional Method 94/100 (described as "complex and expressive… lovely toast and spice" with "amazing depth") and the BOTLEYS Col Fondo 92/100.
  • Alice Lascelles, Drinks Writer at the FT, wrote of the 2018 vintage that it "had a silky, seamless fluidity… very classy, thoughtful and quite vinous", calling Domaine Hugo "one to watch".
  • An independent panel of judges tasting the 2021 vintage recorded their assessment as "utterly seductive", describing the wine as "mineral-driven, hazelnut-laced, umami-opulent", with "creamy, complete, serious… long lasting, mineral finish with energetic acidity".

Certification and Awards

Domaine Hugo was admitted to Renaissance des Appellations - Return to Terroir in 2023, joining a small international group of biodynamic producers recognised by Nicolas Joly for putting the concept of terroir into practice. The wines are certified organic and certified biodynamic (Demeter).

Visiting Domaine Hugo

Domaine Hugo is not open to casual drop-ins. The estate sits at Botley's Farm, a working mixed farm, and visitors are by appointment only. There are no published set-price tours or tastings; visits are arranged individually, typically with Hugo or Daniel, and tend to be intimate and focused on the wines and the farm rather than production-line hospitality. Appointments can be made by telephone on +44 (0)7970 655240 or by email.

Where to Buy the Wines

All Domaine Hugo wines are distributed in the UK by Keeling Andrew, which also operates the Shrine to the Vine wine shops and the Nobel Rot restaurants. Trade customers can request allocations through Keeling Andrew; retail customers buy online direct from Shrine to the Vine's Domaine Hugo page.

Shrine to the Vine Shops

  • 48 Lamb's Conduit Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1N 3LH
  • 27 Broadway Market, Hackney, London, E8 4PH
  • 163 Stoke Newington Church Street, London, N16 0UL

Nobel Rot Restaurants

  • 51 Lamb's Conduit Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1N 3NB
  • 2 Greek Street, Soho, London, W1D 4NB
  • 5 Trebeck Street, Mayfair, London, W1J 7LT

A Sample of UK Stockists

Domaine Hugo is on the list of a striking number of the UK's most thoughtful restaurants and wine shops. The following is a selection by region:

Scotland, North and Central England

West of England

East of England

London

Worldwide Stockists

Domaine Hugo currently exports to France, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Taiwan, Ukraine and the United States. Bubbles of Britain, based in Connecticut, is the US importer, operating primarily on the East Coast but able to arrange delivery anywhere in the country.

Why Domaine Hugo Matters

For a wine country still defining its identity, Domaine Hugo is one of those rare projects where almost every traditional French benchmark - chalk soil, Champagne grape varieties, biodynamic farming, basket pressing, long lees ageing, zero dosage - is in operation on a single small English site. Yet nothing about the wines feels imitative. The chalk speaks with a distinctly Wiltshire accent: lighter alcohol, more direct fruit, a recognisable openness on the palate that critics have called "broad big sky" English.

The estate also has one of the clearest philosophies in the country: biodiversity under the vines, animal grazing between the rows, ambient fermentation in barrel and amphora, gravity movement, no addition of sulphur, and only one cultivar of yeast anywhere in the process. To taste the current HUGO Brut Nature MV, the HUGO Rosé 2022 and (when available) BOTLEYS Col Fondo is to taste a single downland system interpreted across three different styles - none of them dressed up.

For anyone interested in the contemporary English wine story - whether as a drinker, an importer or a fellow grower - Domaine Hugo is, in the plainest sense of the word, a benchmark.

Wines & Products (3)

BOTLEYS Col Fondo (Semi-Sparkling) · wine -
HUGO Multi-Vintage Traditional Method Brut Nature · wine -
HUGO Rosé 2022 · wine -

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Tours & Experiences (1)

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Location

SP5 3NW