A visit to English Sparkling Wine country
There was a time when going to visit a vineyard in the UK meant getting on a ferry, a train or a plane and heading south. Not any more. Some of the world’s best sparkling wine is being grown an hour’s drive from London. Our founder, Lucy Johnson, went to visit Ridgeview Estate, amongst the most sustainable wineries in the country.
As a child, and the daughter of a wine writer, I spent all my holidays in wineries. Or so it seemed. While most kids have memories of the splash of swimming pools or the grit of sandy beaches, my abiding memories are of dank, cool cellars, full of musty oak barrels. They had their own romance, I suppose, but to my child mind, they were a lousy replacement for a pool.
So it’s ironic that as an adult, I seek out wineries on holiday like a grape-seeking missile. This obsession with wineries has taken me, over the years, from the war-torn vineyards of Lebanon’s Bekkaa Valley to the Hungarian vineyards of Tokaji on the eastern border with Ukraine to the winding roads of California’s Napa Valley.
Only in the last few years has it taken me down the A3.
Nestled amongst the vines, the Rows & Vine restaurant is a perfect place for lunch.
One of the few positive effects of global warming is that it’s brought wine country to us in Britain. Most specifically and successfully, so far, sparkling wine. Where two decades ago, English sparkling wine was the punch line of any number of self-deprecating jokes about this country, now it is a formidable industry.
Wine-growing is, of course, farming. fancy farming, perhaps, but still farming. So the UK wine industry knows that while it owes its new-found success to the climate, the climate is becoming increasingly fickle and unpredictable - and that makes wine growing harder. Which is why sustainability is a priority for many wineries.
Ridgeview Estate in Sussex is one of the first vineyards in this country to be awarded B-Corp certification, which indicates it takes its environmental credentials seriously. So I decided that a weekend in a winery was just the thing for marital bliss, and leaving the kids with the grandparents, my husband and I headed to the South Downs.
I can’t pretend the approach to Ridgeview is anything like drawing up outside the fairytale chateau of Champagne’s Veuve Cliquot. We turned off a B road, into a short lane that ended abruptly in a car park next to a utilitarian warehouse housing the winery. But once we’d plugged in our hybrid car, and headed out to the vineyard, with its sweeping views of the downs, the magic began.
Sussex sparkling wine vineyards now compete with Champagne for awards.
Lunch among the rows and vines.
Ridgeview has recently opened a tented restaurant amongst the vines, the Rows and Vine. The weather was damp and cool when we arrived for lunch, and we were grateful for the light blankets thrown over the backs of the chairs. We took our seats with our ring-side view of the budding Chardonnay vines and tucked into a sharing menu of small plates, bursting with freshness and flavour.
Their dry-as-a-bone Cavendish sparkling wine was the perfect cut through for our platters of plump oysters and rich dollops of pan-fried scallops with cauliflower puree. Pudding was a chocolate nemesis. What else?
After lunch, we spent a happy afternoon wandering around the winery and learning about how they are coppicing their woodland to let the sunlight in, using clover amongst the vines to regenerate the soil and creating a colony of bees to pollinate the wild flowers. They’re adding even more solar panels and have an advanced aeration system to conserve water. All B-Corp ticks.
As the sun descended through the sky, we found ourselves in a light haze of sparkling wine tasting - and decided that while we enjoyed the light touch and citrusy flavour of their Bloomsbury, and the raspberry pink froth of their Fitzrovia Rose, it was the Cavendish we’d be taking home.
If you’re looking for a weekend retreat, why not head to Sussex for a wine tour and tasting?
Take a Tour
Now is a great time to visit English sparkling wine country. With the UK heating up, Champagne has effectively headed north and arrived in Sussex and Kent, which have the same limestone slopes and chalky soils as that illustrious French wine growing region. Sussex was even given its own Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) last summer, meaning the name ‘Sussex’ is protected for wines that are made there. And bringing it in line with wine regions like Burgundy, Rioja, Tuscany and, yes, Champagne.
Inspired by tourist hotspots like California and Cape Town, you’ll find new tasting rooms, restaurants and even hotel rooms among the vineyards. If you’re heading for Ridgeview, why not make a weekend of it and check out Bolney Wine Estate, Rathfinney Estate, Breaky Bottom and the legendary Nyetimber.
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Disclaimer: My husband and I were guests of Ridgeview Wine Estate for our wine-tasting and tour. Additionally, we vet each brand for their commitment to sustainability but we are not a certification body, nor are we auditors, and we have taken the approach that we trust brands to tell the truth about their sustainability policies, practices and plans.