Content in Kent (The Garden of England) Day 3 (of 3)

Day three of my trip to the south east began with an early breakfast at my hotel in Rye. The evening before I had enjoyed a curry in town followed by a stop off at Olde Worlde Wines, a great bottle shop offering take out purchases and wine by the glass to drink in store. I got chatting to the locals and enjoyed a glass or three of the Barbera. This type of business is fairly new but growing throughout the UK as wine lovers seek out alternatives to the increasingly dominant supermarkets.

After breakfast and checkout I had an hour to spare so I decided on another walk around the the lovely town of Rye. If you've read the other blogs you can probably imagine what happened next. Rain, RAIN, RAIN. At least I now had a coat to protect me. To be honest this was no defence. For about the third time during my trip the weather was so bad that people were actually sheltering in doorways, including me. There is something quaint about seeing that but if you are caught in it it is horrible. Eventually I actually ran, yes ran down the high street back to my car.

Woodchurch Wines is a family business started in 2009 by Graham and Donna Barbour, with the intention of producing English sparkling wines using the noble Champagne grape varieties. After the disappointments of the afternoon before (see my previous blog) I was really hopeful of this meet up. For a start I was actually going to be meeting an actual owner of a vineyard.

My journey to the vineyard was a delight taking me back into Kent (from East Sussex) and through the beautiful towns of Appledore and Woodchurch itself which are both stunning. My sat-nav deposited me on the interestingly named 'Susans Hill' but I could not find the vineyard and drove at least a mile beyond it before I turned around and could see the vines in the distance. The entrance was simply a gate in a field, with no signage as Graham is keeping things quite low key at this stage.

As I mentioned in the first blog of my trip the phrase 'Content in Kent' came out of my meeting with Graham at his vineyard site. I mentioned the story in my first blog but it is worth repeating here. Having traveled the world on business, Graham had taken a keen interest in fine food and drink and decided wine-making would be for him. After careful consideration of many areas around the world he decided to focus on Kent for a vineyard site because he was indeed 'content in Kent' having spent most of his life there. I learnt all of this in an hour's chat with Graham at his vineyard site.

Initially we had a walk amongst the vines, hooray the rain stopped for 5 minutes, then sat and chatted as well as tasting the wines in a temporary small marquee that Graham has had erected on site. He is hopeful of a more permanent 'cellar door' at a later stage. Now the rain was hammering down again and having brought in some wine from his car Graham accidentally left his car boot open only to find it sodden when we went back out in the rain again about 30 minutes later. Sorry Graham, I did feel partially responsible!

Graham's passion for viticulture and for the quality of the wine produced shone through and I am so pleased I was able to meet him. Everything here is about the quality of the wine produced and this summer the first vintage, from 2012, is available to taste.

We started with the Classic Cuvée created with 91% Pinot Noir and 9% Pinot Meunier. A gorgeous golden colour and aromas of red berries with a touch of baked apple. The palate was creamy, with a touch of biscuityness from the secondary fermentation but utterly charming. So easy to drink.

Graham Barbour and his fantastic first vintage wines

We then moved on to the 'Blanc de Blancs' - and as the name suggests this is made entirely with white grapes so 100% Chardonnay. I am not usually a big fan of Blanc de Blancs Champagne as I often find it too heavy without the light touch of the Pinot Noir. But this was simply stunning. I can say this with absolute certainty that this was the finest sparkling Chardonnay, Champagne or otherwise that I have ever tasted. It really was. Again baked apple was present but the flavour veered more to the pastry rather than bready side. The opposite of what I expected. A magnificent wine worthy of much praise.

Left - Blanc de Blancs
Right - Classic Cuvée
Both - fabulous!

It won an IWSC bronze medal where as the Classic Cuvée won a silver but I much preferred the Blanc de Blancs. I took another glass, although I had a long drive home so had to be careful.
I thanked Graham for his time, and would like to do that again here. Your wines are superb, and this is just the first vintage.

If you would like to try them, and I highly recommend that you do, at the moment they are only available via the Woodchurch website, but Graham is working on supplying fine restaurants in the south east and who knows what else from there.

I will certainly be using them on tastings when I get the opportunity and I have a Champagne versus English Sparkling Wine evening at The Junction in Harborne, Birmingham on October 28th. More details here. Woodchurch  Blanc de Blancs will be one of the wines. I'd love you to join us.

Thanks for reading. Please do follow me on Twitter and Facebook to hear about my latest happenings and upcoming events. You might be interested in booking your own event. Details at www.gloryofwine.com

Until next time. Enjoy your wine.
Cheers
Simon

Content in Kent - The Garden of England Day 1 (of 3)

Well that's not true for a start as I spent a lot of my time in East Sussex and my evenings in the very pretty and ancient town of Rye, East Sussex.

This was my little excursion to the vineyards of south east England just last month (August 2015). The phrase 'content in Kent' was actually said to me by Graham Barbour of Woodchurch Estate, the last vineyard of the 6 I visited over 3 days. Having travelled the world on business, Graham had taken a keen interest in fine food and drink and decided winemaking would be for him. After careful consideration of many areas around the world he decided to focus on Kent for a vineyard site because he was indeed 'content in Kent' having spent most of his life there. More of Graham and the beautiful first vintage of Woodchurch wines in day 3, first we must return to the beginning of the story.

My wife Louise planned a trip away to Spain with her sister, and this gave me an excellent opportunity to visit an area of the country that I'd never been to before and to visit some of the fantastic English vineyards along the way.

Having selected Rye as a good base to stay I scanned my English Wine Producers map for vineyards I could visit. Having selected about 8 vineyards to approach I fired off an email introducing myself and hoping for the best. I should say that many of the vineyards are open to the public in any case but some only accepted private tours.

Top of my list to visit was Chapel Down, probably the leading English wine producer in terms of brand awareness. Although it would have been nice to have a private tour I was offered the chance to join one of the many tours they conduct daily at 1pm on the Monday. Leaving the West Midlands early I arrived for lunch in the pretty town of Tenterden just a few miles away from Chapel Down for lunch and the first of about 20 soakings from the terrible rainy weather that accompanied my week. At this point I also realised that I had forgotten my wet weather coat and had to rely on an umbrella until I had chance to purchase something new to protect me from the incessant weather.
No matter the tour of Chapel Down was a joy. Begun in 1977 with a planting of 6 acres by Stephen Skelton, after a few changes of ownership the plot has now expanded to 26 acres at the original site; 72 acres near Aylesford plus a further few hundred acres of vines grown under contract throughout the south east.

A fantastic welcome beckons at Chapel Down

The visitor centre is fitting for one of the UK's most high profile and largest producers. Beautifully appointed with a lovely walled herb garden, wine and fine food shop, tasting area, as well as the vineyards and winery. Our tour was conducted by Gavin, who clearly knew pretty much everything there was to know about the operation, and the wines when we came to taste them later. The tour lasted around 40 minutes and included the vines and all of the winery.

Our tour guide Gavin amongst the vines

I was delighted to see for the first time the full disgorging process where the plug of ice containing the lees is removed, the dosage added, followed by the corking and bottles then labelled. The whole process takes around 6 minutes and we all watched mesmerised as the bottles made their way across the winery, starting crown capped and unlabelled to finished product ready for sale. Fascinating, well for me anyway.

The fascinating disgorging process (slightly blurred)

Chapel Down have become so large now that they have outdoor temperature controlled fermenting tanks as they are not allowed to build any more sheds. The tour complete we returned to the shop and a tasting of 7 of Chapel Down's 17 wines available for purchase. I've tried my best to get into the still wines but it really is the sparkling wines that are of the most interest and the English Rose Sparkling at £20.99 got a 9/10 from me. All soft and delicious like a comfort blanket I could happily drink it all day.

The full list of available wines, beer and cider - And a few tasting notes from me

Chapel Down now also make beer, and most recently cider; their Curious Brew 4.7% ABV lager that is re-fermented using Champagne yeasts is a particular favourite with myself and a gold medal winner at the International Beer Challenge 2012. On departure I purchased a case and enjoyed tasting the 'Curious Apple' cider too.

Before leaving Chapel Down I just had to get a photo with my car and the Chapel Down entrance in shot. Ta dah:-

Glory of Wine outside Chapel Down!

Chapel Down are clearly only going to get bigger, their wines already have a significant presence on the aisles of Waitrose, and are a great British (or should I say English) success story. I left having thoroughly enjoyed the tour and tasting looking forward to more of the same.

A section of the wine list dedicated to just Sussex
and Kent sparkling wines. Wow!

I should say that throughout my three days the rain barely stopped and my afternoon and evening in Rye was spent mostly sheltering from the weather. Rye is a beautiful, quaint ancient town with quirky shops and passageways and some beautiful cobbled streets. My final word must go to English wine again though. In the window of the The George, a very fine hotel in Rye was the wine list containing a whole section on Kent and Sussex wines. To see that show's how established English Sparkling Wine is now. And that is great to see.

In Day 2 of my journey through English wine in Sussex and Kent I will be visiting Hush Heath Estate, one of the finest vineyards in southern England, discovering Oxney Organic Estate, a new kid on the block and telling about my four vineyard visits in one day.

Thanks for reading. Please come back soon. Please do follow me on Twitter and Facebook to here about my upcoming events or maybe book an event with me yourself. Details at my website www.gloryofwine.com

Until next time. Enjoy your wine.
Cheers
Simon