Hush Heath Estate and Winery, Staplehurst near Tonbridge, Kent - 2nd November, 2015

We were visiting our middle daughter and family - now increased with the birth of a new little girl on the 14th October. We are so lucky! It was the occasion of the 8th birthday of our eldest granddaughter and so we were pleased to see them all. We had had a busy time at the horse riding party on the 1st November and as the 2 school going girls had an inset day on the Monday, we were only too pleased to take them out for a few hours. It just so happened that we also knew of a vineyard not too far from them....

It was a beautiful autumnal day.....and driving through the Kentish lanes is a delight. Bit of a shame we weren't in Sassy but as we explained to the girls, we wouldn't have all fitted in!

Hush Heath is based around a stunning manor house dating back to 1503 which was bought and restored by the Balfour-Lynn family in the 1980's. They have 37 acres of vines, a mix of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier - the 3 main champagne grapes and these vines were planted in 2000, and there are also 30 acres of apples. Kent really is the garden of England. We could smell the recently picked apples as we arrived...

The winery and bottling plant was built in 2010 and this is also where the shop and tasting room is.....

We had planned a walk around the extensive woodlands on the estate but sadly were thwarted as they were busy picking and so it was not possible to have a walk today since the vehicles were busy rushing up and down. So a return will once more be necessary! You can usually walk here on a self guided walk or you can organise a group tour and tasting. The shop though is open 7 days a week from 11 - 5pm.

The red sparkling wine here is named after the family itself and the Manor house, Balfour 1503 and the rose sparkling is again named after the family, Balfour.

We tasted the 3 still wines. The white Chardonnay, which we liked very much. This is named Skyes's Chardonnay, named after one of the Balfour daughters. We seem to be growing into white wine lovers!

The rosé, which is a mix of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. This is named after the other daughter, Nanette and is a very pale rosé, not entirely to our taste.

And then the red, Hush Heath red. Originally they were growing the red here for the sparkling wines but have now produced this good English red for the past 2 years. It compared favourably to us against the other reds we have tried so far. This was maybe Chris's favourite red to date - I think mine is still the Polgoon one to date..

As I said, there are also apples here and so the girls chose to try the apple juice!

They also make lots of ciders and all of the apple products are named after their son, Jake.

It was a lovely afternoon as we left looking across the fields of the estate..

The pot planted vines at the entrance still had their fruit....

maybe that grape was a bit on the tart side....

...but Abigail would have tried more!!

It had been another successful tasting - the first in the south east and so many more to go!!!