Hatch Mansfield tasting: Iberian intrigue meets Evremond excitement

By Hamish Graham

Published: 16 September, 2025

At Hatch Mansfield’s portfolio tasting at the glitzy Institute of Directors, established producers and upstart projects were the order of the day.

Surrounded by portraits of monarchs past, producers at the event showcased their own regal offer to the UK trade. Hatch Mansfield’s portfolio spans the best known Old and New World regions, with some of the wine’s most famous producers, including Champagne Tattinger and Louis Jadot, making the distributor their UK home.

One producer in particular that sparked the interest of many an attendee was Portugal’s Esporão. As export sales director Pedro Lopes Vieira at the company explained, the UK trade’s relatively newfound infatuation with wines from the Atlantic-straddling nation is now resolutely translating into both volume and value sales.

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The producer began its journey in the Alentejo region but now commands presence across Portugal, in both the Vinho Verde and Douro Valley. Zeroing in on the Vinho Verde, wines from Esporão’s Qunita do Ameal showcased why the trendy region’s wines are gaining mass appeal amongst UK consumers.

Their flagship entry-level offer Bico Amarelo is a fresh and bright white wine made from 50% Loureiro, 20% Alvarinho and 20% Avesso, drawn from growers across the region. The Loureiro offers the wine a citric acidity that makes for quick and easy drinking. The wine has recently gained global acclaim winning both the Portuguese White and Vinho Verde gongs at this year’s International Wine Challenge. According to Lopes Viera the wine is performing particularly well with Hatch’s on-trade distribution partner Matthew Clark which is spearheading the wine as a value-led, quaffable offer.

Three 100% Loureiro wines from Quinta do Ameal were on show, with a range of ageing practices highlighting the versatility of the indigenous grape. Over 80% of Loureiro production at the vineyard is dedicated to the Ameal Loureiro wine – aged in stainless steel for seven months, the 2023 vintage highlighted that Loureiro acidity with a refreshing finish.

The Ameal Solo Único 2024 is aged in concrete for eight months by contrast (20% in concrete egg, 80% in concrete vats), showed a greater volume and texture with the grape’s signature acidity supported by more minerality. Finally, the estate’s Ameal Reserva 2022 was aged in old oak barrels and foudres for nine months (followed by six in bottle), the wood imparting texture rather than flavour to the wine.

As Lopes Vieira puts it, a small opportunity for other larger regions in the UK is a big one for Portugal, and he hopes the positive trajectory the country is on can continue for the nation’s wines here.

Staying close to Portugal, Spanish heavyweights CVNE were in attendance to illustrate that white wines both aged and new are a strength of the whole of Iberia. Albariño wines from Rías Baixas’ Bodega La Val impressed, while further inland Valdeorras’ Virgen del Galir demonstrated the punchy potential of Godello.

The producer’s Val do Galir Godello 2024 is aged in a range of vessels (steel tanks, foudres, concrete tanks) with each lot being vinified separately and blended at the end to alchemise the final wine. The resulting product is well-structured with a deep minerality and citrus aromas. Virgen del Galir’s Regueirón Godello 2023 differs with an ageing of 11 months in oak barrels and foudres, resulting in a creamier expression of Godello.

If the signature of Albariño from Rías Baixas is salinity, then inland Valdeorras’ Godello showcases Galician minerality. CVNE Europe export sales manger Clara Stavile believes the latter grape variety has “great potential in the international market”.

The most intriguing wine from the CVNE table was a 100% Viura wine from the Rioja’s Monopole. The majority of the producer’s Clásico Reserva Blanco 2021 is aged in underground sherry vats affording the delicious aged white a slight sherry character. Admittedly a hand-sell, somms take note as this wine, with complex acidity and a saline throughline, could more than intrigue intrepid customers.

A Hatch Mansfield tasting could not be complete without getting an update on the Domaine Evremond journey. A collaborative project between friends and business parnters – Hatch’s Patrick McGrath MW and Pierre-Emmauel Tattinger – the project is continuing full steam ahead.

Director of sales, marketing and communications for the estate, India McGrath (pictured), detailed the path forward for the producer. With the harvest for edition 5 of the Classic Cuvee set to commence in 10 days, this year’s harvest is expected to produce 200,000 bottles. Though last year 10 additional hectares of Chardonnay were planted, the new vines are not ready yet, hence 2025’s harvest will yield a similar production level to that of 2024. The state of the art 1.5m-capacity bottle storage facility gives Evremond a yearly commercial bottling target of roughly 350,000 bottles.

Edition 2 of the Classic Cuvee is set for release before Christmas (20% of grapes from 2020 harvest and 80% from 2021) with next year set to see the introduction of a Magnum as part the Edition 3 range. McGrath explained that if all goes well in the upcoming September harvest, a rosé sparkling could be down the line at the producer. Vintage wines and blanc de blancs are all part of the vision too for the French-allied Kent winery.

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