The winter has seen a forray into relatively unknown parts, and grapes, of Portugal and South Africa.  But there are still a plethora of wine tourism destinations on our doorstep.  I am champing at the bit to get on the road again.  But in truth, they must wait until the weather is a bit kinder.

Nevertheless our trip to the County town of Lewes for Ruth’s birthday was delightful.  An overnighter (without children, thanks to Kirsty and Ben), that had some little gems for the wine lover.

Symposium – a  bijou, independent wine merchant-cum-coffee shop not far from the station on Lansdown Place, was a good find.  Not a great big selection of Sussex wine: *disappointing*.  But their principle commitment appears to be to good quality wine for all budgets, which is very commendable. 

And it is certainly true that the premium wines of our fair downlands are at the pricey end. 

Why not check out their website www.symposium-finewine.co.uk.  They were super-friendly and the coffee was good.

And whilst I had known that Lewes is the home of the illustrious Harvey’s Brewery, I hadn’t known that Harvey’s has a brewery shop, and that it has a bit of a fine wine enclave within it.

This was also a welcome find, and there was some very delicious-looking red Graves in there, as well as row upon row of new world wines with tantalising descriptions.

But, as with Symposium, not very much Sussex fayre I’m afraid.  So it didn’t get the full complement of SWL stars.

Anyhow.  Lewes.  Comes recommended as a superb weekend getaway location by many more Tripadvisor-tastic than I. 

And if you do end up there feeling a bit parched – rest easy.  You can find a good glass of wine if you want one!

The view of the ridge from the Tasting Room

You can be forgiven for not knowing, but I am tyrannical about poor spelling.

So the fact that I have spelt Ridgeview wrong throughout the course of the past months is a bit distressing.  But there are worse things happening in the world.  So I will have to get over myself.

Especially as I was given such a lovely birthday weekend by Ruth…

It’s become a bit of a tradition that I get a surprise for my birthday.  And Ruth has had to develop over the years all sorts of clever subterfuges to keep it secret as, by some unconscious process, I seem to develop all the innate abilities of a private investigator from about May onwards.  Hyper-vigilant to any clues as to the forthcoming birthday antics…

But it was too easy this year.  When I saw the envelope from Ridgeview addressed to the lady in question then I at least knew some of the answer.  But the half of it that I did guess in no way disappointed.

We arrived at the vineyard for an 11am start and Mardi Roberts, Sales & Marketing Manager for Ridgeview, took us into the vines.  With her native Australian accent a little subdued by life with the Poms, Mardi led us gently by the hand through the story of the Ridgeview calendar.

She conjured up images of naughty grape-loving badgers; cold nearly-mornings, the vineyard lit with paraffin lamps to ward off the frost; industrious hands green-harvesting in good summers and sorting cratefuls of grapes to ensure that only the very best get a chance to make the cuvée…

Mardi conveyed the sense that, like most premium wine producing vineyards the world over, the Ridgeview enterprise is very much a family affair.  And in our tour through the winery, it was re-inforced for me once again the notion that you need already to have made or inherited a shedload of money before you are able to start printing more by making good wine – especially good wine with bubbles.

Ridgeview’s outfit at Ditchling (near Brighton) is of the highest technological order.  The most up to date equipment from the Champagne region is there, part-funded by grants from DEFRA, so that it can be used by other grape-growers.  And the company is diversifying its business interests by making wine not only for other vineyards but also for Waitrose and M&S.

So in due course we got to the tasting in the room that best takes in the view of the ridge, and we had a chance to explore the different Ridgeview blends… 

Bloomsbury is their Chardonnay-dominant offering and this was our starter.  I had my Twitter fingers on that morning, and if you cast your eye over to the other side of the blog, you can probably still get a sense of the profundity.

The Bloomsbury was, for me, not quite as prosaic as my summer meadows tasting comment, but it was all to get better.  The Cavendish (more pinot in this) was the first Ridgeview I ever tasted some three or four years ago and the memory was in no way despoiled by a re-visit.  This was toasty and rich and the mousse was as creamy as a ferret’s tummy.

And the Knightsbridge was well, oh.  Just sublime.

So good in fact that they have more or less sold out of their latest vintage.  Which Mardi, in a beautifully Pom, understated sort of way, just slipped in to the patter.

I kid you not, the whole set up is incredibly impressive.  We were there just as the London Olympics was getting under way; when there had been a 70% increase in demand – and a massive spike in English Sparkling Wine sales across the country.  Ridgeview is already among the wine medals internationally, and it’s not hard to see why.  Not only is the product of an incredibly high standard, but the presentation is too.

We couldn’t resist taking some of the Victoria home with us.  This is a recent addition to the Ridgeview collection – a Diamond Jubilee pink that is truly, mouth-wateringly delicious.

Looking back on it, I gauge the success of the trip by these two disappointments: that we couldn’t get our hands on any of the Knightsbridge, and that the Victoria wasn’t for sale in magnum.

So whether you have to cycle Ditchling Beacon to get there, or you can bear to use your car, I’d recommend a trip to Ridgeview Wine Estate.  Birthday or not.

After the bucketsful of rain of the last few weeks the weather miraculously held and the ambling around Glynde Place with its beautiful rural, posh-life charm was unexpectedly magical.

I am not sure if the wine tasting glasses that we received when we arrived were a gift for us to take home with us – in any case little Dolly broke one of them – but the one remaining is a nice memento.

John Torode said good morning.  Not sure if it’s because he reads the blog (!) or because he’s broken the mould as a nice polite Antipodean.  There was a Masterchef winner there (apparently) doing tasty pork bites.  A Dosa wrap van that had me going back for a naughty wallop of seconds, but there was also a goodly turnout from local producers in the wine marquee.

I didn’t manage to get to listen to Stephen Skelton. Maybe next year…

I had thought that I might go and listen to Stephen Skelton wax lyrical in one of the tutored tastings, but as we had come en famille that felt a bit rude, so Kirsty and I took one for the team and went to do a comprehensive tour of the tent – to check out what was on show, whilst the other halves were keeping the children occupied.  [I paid for it, mind.  I waited hours in the queue for the bloody face-painting afterwards.]

So we started talking to a nice Northern chap who was fronting the Bluebell Vineyard stall.  His Seyval Blanc sparkling has apparently done superbly well at the recent UK Vineyard Association awards.  It was fresh, but the mousse was quite explosive and too much would I think have given me wind. 

Next came the well-met Breaky Bottom.  It was great to chat to Peter Hall, the winemaker, who was extremely complimentary about my aftershave (and made me realise what an amateur taster I still am – true professionals would have eschewed any parfum that morning in order to keep the aromas in the glass as pure as possible). 

Peter was showing a Chardonnay from 2008 which smelt for all the world of oysters and seaweed; a Seyval Blanc (which he reckoned to be in the same league as the 2006 Breaky which I bigged up in the previous post, and which Kirsty adored) and a Chardonnay-Seyal Blanc blend which was much gentler in respect of bubbles, but forgettable.

I was so taken with the bottled smell of the sea that I bought a couple of the Chardonnay.

In fact Peter’s were the only purchases of the day.  The wines from Upperton vineyard were nice – the sparkling white on offer was minerally and fresh with a nose of pencil shavings.  And their sparkling pink had dairy notes, but just didn’t sway me sufficiently from BB’s C.

And then, as soon as it was begun it was over.  And we were back in the car – all brownied-up and story-told-out with smeared face paint and rosy cheeks.

A fun day, worth putting in the diary for foodies everywhere!

Breaky Bottom tops my personal chart over the past few weeks

So I’m back at the frontline of hyperlocal drinking after the May elections, chicken-poxy children and a bout of holiday had almost seen me off.

I’ve been remiss. 

English Wine Week has passed by this year without a mention.  And I have killed off the Wine Guru in the Hastings & St Leonards Resident.  But hopefully this will give time for spontaneous musings here, and a bit of space to seek out more interesting and indigenous local libations.

Over the past weeks I can recall three family occasions for bubbles which I should have recorded in much more detail for posterity…

There was a wonderful biscuity offering from Breaky Bottom.  A muscular Kentish lad of a wine from Gusborne, and Ridgview’s 2009 Bloomsbury, which was extremely nice with chocolate cake.

But it was the Breaky Bottom that won my heart.  I can’t wait to get to the Glynde Food & English Wine Festival on Sunday to try some more…

Ian Jarman is still going great guns up at the Ivy House Lane industrial estate.

If you’ve not yet been up to Cooden Cellars’ Hastings hub, then I suggest you get yourself up there.

Not only does he have a wide range of wine – geographically and budget-wise – but he has time to talk to you about what kind of wine you like, and that’s something you don’t get at the supermarket.

Given that I generally try to give value for money tips in this column, I was keen to know what he feels is his best offer of the moment. And I have to say that he came up with a corker.

Pinot Noir Viile Timisului 2011, a Romanian wine made by the wine house Căluşari, is currently retailing at £6.50 but if you take your copy of The Resident with you, then Ian will give you a 10% discount.

To be honest, Pinot Noir isn’t my favourite grape, so I had a bit of heart-sink when he recommended it, but boy was I wrong.

This pale ruby wine is unexpectedly complex on the palate.

Tobacco, licquorice, nectarines, peaches. All these flavours melding with aromas of sour cherry and caramel. Quite extraordinary. And the finish just goes on and on…

We spoiled ourselves and drank it with a takeaway from the Jali restaurant at Carlisle Parade. The match was pretty darn perfect.

Julia Trustram Eve is i/c EWP!

Thought I should record a few reflections about the tasting that I went to with my friend James at WSET’s headquarters on Bermondsey Street, near London Bridge, on Thursday.

A pleasant surprise was that we were tutored by Julia Trustram Eve who is the head honcho of English Wine Producers – the marketing arm of the English Wine industry – http://www.englishwineproducers.com/

Julia was formidably knowledgeable and gave a whistlestop tour of the history of the industry, with us tasting eight wines along the way.  But more than the history, she was keen to talk about the future of the industry which, as most people will agree, has changed out of all recognition over the last decade or two and looks decidedly rosé.  (I can’t claim that gag as I my own, but was one of the better ones from the nice man from Yorkshire sat opposite me who enjoyed his one-twos with the tutor probably more than anyone else.  You can judge for yourself what the other gags were like).

I can’t be bothered to relive the tasting moments but I diligently Tweeted them as they exploded onto my tastebuds.  Perhaps you’d be so good as to go and look over the other side of the blog?!

Only one Sussex wine on the list though.  Boooooo Julia.

But credit where it’s due, probably the wine of the night was the Camel Valley Darnibole Bacchus 2010.  It was utterly goosebericious.  And as we commented on our table, quite different from a Bacchus you’d taste at Chapel Down.  Camel Valley’s rendition was much weightier and had a smokier complexity.  Yum.

Most interesting industry fact I gleaned was that last year EWP decided against any sort of regional or quality descriptor for English sparkling wines.  No truck was had with Ridgview’s order of Merret, or Coates & Seeley’s Britagne or Mark Driver (at Rathfinny)’s ‘Downland’ soubriquet. 

The word from JTE was that she didn’t think that the industry was ‘quite at that point’.  The subtext, I would hazard a guess, is that the big English sparkling brand names are quite happy promoting themselves thank you very much and don’t see the need to follow the Champenois or the Bordelais and market a regional brand.  They want to stake out a share of the premium market for their own label. 

How butch.

I have been beguiled by the Co-op’s Fairtrade selection again.

This time I was in the Bohemia Road store, but I am pretty sure the Ore Village, Central St Leonard’s and Silverhill ones will have it too…

Over the last year or so I have been trying to broaden my experience of white wine grapes. And one of my favourite new finds has been the Torrentés grape from Argentina.

The Co-op’s own Fairtrade Torrentés Chardonnay blend (2011 vintage) has been made from grapes grown in the La Rioja valley, which as I am sure you know nestles between the Velazco mountain range in the East and the Andes in the West.

This is a solidly lemon colour in the glass with white grapefruit and minerals on the first nose – like a wintry sea breeze. After a swirl , the aromas are more of white spring flowers.

Dry and with high acidity – it really got my saliva glands working – the alcohol is not too fierce in the throat and it has a lovely silky body which at £4.99 is pretty darn impressive.

Flavours of green apple and a herby, lightly fennel-y twist make this possibly the best value white wine I have tasted for a good while.

Not that I have them much, and with Valentine’s Day a fading memory, this would have gone beautifully with fresh oysters. A trip to Rock-a-Nore beckons…

Lidl on Bohemia Road’s turn this week for a rummage through its wine section.

The best variety and quality was, to my mind, among the Spanish wines available. There was an interesting young Rioja (Joven) at £3.99 and a weightier looking wine from Tarragona, but I opted to try the Barceliño 2009 from Catalunya at just shy of a fiver.

This wine is produced 40 miles south of Barcelona and is a typical blend of Tempranillo and Garnacha (or Grenache to you French-speakers).

Ruby red in colour, the first aromas were floral and light – red fruits definitely to the fore: cherries, and the waxy skin of a red apple.

But as the wine swirled in the glass there were more strawberry jam notes. Very perfumed, it was evocative of some of the Northern Rhone blends, of Syrah and Viognier, but was much less dry on the palate.

The oak barriques that the wine is aged in for three months have left their mark. There is a certain smokiness, and soft vanilla flavours in the mouth. Plums, leather, this is an interesting wine that is comfortable being paired with spicier food: we had ours with a home-made Thai noodle soup.

The length of the aftertaste was what was particularly impressive for me, given the price. A smooth, tobacco-ey taste which was lovely to savour. I’m glad I popped in!

When my grandfather passed away a couple of years ago, I ended up inheriting from him a share in the Wine Society – this is the John Lewis of the wine world: a mutual that ploughs its profits back into making good wines available at decent prices. If you are interested to know more, just have a look online.

Before Christmas, a friend of mine and I went to one of the Society’s tastings in London – exploring the wines of Portugal. It was interesting and informative – primarily because there are lots of indigenous Portugese grapes that I had never heard of. There were also a wide range of Madeira wines and Ports to try.

Verdelho is one of the four main grape varieties grown on the island of Madeira, and it is famous for making a medium dry fortified wine. So it caught my eye on the label of a South East Australian dry white on offer in Morrisons at the moment.

Rosemount, one of the bigger Australian producers, has created a (2009 vintage) Semillon, Verdelho, Chardonnay blend. It is less than half price at £4.99, until 26 February.

A medium lemon colour, the wine has immediate aromas of pear drops, apples and lychee; and after a swirl in the glass it has real cleanliness and freshness, and a bit of a tropical fruit rush.

It is a well-balanced wine in respect of alcohol and acidity with limey citrus flavours, and is evocative of fresh cut grass and summer days. Even though it’s the middle of winter, it’ll go beautifully with your favourite fish pie.

Nick and I might not follow the same political persuasion, but what we do share is our passion for wine, and more specifically, our fondness for English Wine.

I have for many years been interested in English Wine so much so that I use to take my family to regular trips to as many English vineyards as I could muster. In those days, prior to explosive growth of the so called ‘Champagne Varieties’, I use to like the spicy and floral Schonburgers and Huxelrebes .  There was a touch of Gewurztraminer about them.  I also liked the oak aged Seyval Blanc that once was produced at the vineyards in Tenterden.

My passion for English Wines was further elevated after I spent a number of years at Plumpton College, firstly studying Winemaking and Viticulture and then later on taking my WSET Diploma. 

Chris Foss, Head of Wine Studies at Plumpton, who previously worked in Bordeaux, gave me a great insight into the pros and cons of establishing a vineyard in the UK.  This knowledge came in handy when I took my Diploma, as part of my qualification entailed writing four long essays on different aspects of the Wine Market. One particular one I chose to do was entitled, ‘Where in the world would you establish a vineyard and why?’

Well as you probably guessed I chose the South East of England.  My argument was based on the belief that with the aid of global warming, England could become the new New Zealand of the wine world.  This is not so fanciful, as New Zealand in the 70’s and early 80’s was mostly planted with the Muller Thurgau grape just like England was 10 years ago.  Then Cloudy Bay came along and started producing world class Sauvignon Blanc and the rest as they say is history.  Instead of Sauvignon Blanc, Sparkling Wine made in the Champagne Style is the UK’s forte.

It’s clear to see why the South East of England in particular should be able to make classic traditional method sparkling wine.  Firstly, with the aid of global warming, it has the perfect climate; in fact, the average temperature in the South East is equivalent to that of the Champagne region in the 1970’s.  Clearly they were making good Champagne during this period and remember good natural acidity is the key to making quality sparkling wine and therefore a relatively cool climate is perfect.

Secondly, both the Champagne region and the South East of England share the same type of geographical feature, namely, chalk soils.  In fact anyone that has visited Champagne could be mistaken that they were somewhere in the South or North Downs!

For these two reasons a number of famous Champagne Houses have been visiting the South East, from Dorset to Kent, in search of potential plots to invest in.  Let’s face it, the price of agricultural land in the South East of England is a fraction of the cost of land in Champagne, so it makes financial sense to invest in the UK.

There is no doubt that some of the best vineyard regions in the world are in locations that are at the limits of feasible wine production, these areas have so called marginal climates, examples include Mosel in Germany, Champagne in France and some of the high Andes vineyards.  The UK is certainly in the category of marginal climate.  For this reason and the high population density, the UK will never be able to compete in terms of production volumes.  However, in terms of quality wine, the UK could take a leaf out of New Zealand’s book and become the best sparkling wine region outside of Champagne.

So far I have concentrated on the UK’s sparkling wine production.  That does not mean that the UK cannot produce quality still wines, far from it.  My favourite still white is made from the Bacchus grape.  In my view, when produced in Southern England the Bacchus grape can produce high quality, Sauvignon Blanc style wines, with both gooseberry and elderflower notes.

“What about the reds?” some critics may ask.  Well clearly, even with global warming, it will be sometime before we will be able to produce top quality Cabernet Sauvignon!  However, we are starting to produce some half decent Pinot Noir.  I remember, in 2003, tasting a Sandhurst Vineyards Pinot Noir and in my view it could have been mistaken for a Central Otago, New Zealand Pinot.  Moreover, the owner of the Gusbourne Vineyards near Appledore, in Kent, is convinced they can produce a high quality, Burgundian Pinot.  Based on the quality of his Sparkling Wines, I would not disagree with him.

So in summary, in an era of global warming and rising alcohol levels, English wines are able to fill a gap in the market for clean, fresh and fruity styles of wine with moderate alcohol.

Next time you go to buy some sparkling wine, maybe for the New Year, look for an English alternative to Champagne.  They may not be much cheaper, but they can match and increasingly surpass them in terms of quality.

See below for further details about The Essential Wine School, Hastings.