Wednesday 1 June 2016

Trevibban Mill near Padstow, Cornwall - 20th May, 2016

So we found ourselves visiting our friends in Cornwall once more - and a lovely time we spent with them too. Hikmet had made a magnificent cross stitch picture for us of a scene from our coastal walk at Nefyn on the Llŷn peninsula.

I have very much been enjoying the rosé wine from Polgoon which we visited last year - at the moment it remains my very favourite English or Welsh wine...

We popped into Camel Valley vineyard on our way down to our friends; we knew how to find it from our visit last year...and purchased some sparkling to celebrate recent birthdays!

On our way home, we decided to try the vineyard near Padstow which we had read about recently having won an award for its red! A visit seemed to be a must....and we also took the opportunity to see Padstow, a pretty working harbour town - but busy even so early in the season!

It is a very pretty location at Trevibban and the vines were planted here in 2008, followed by apple and other fruit tress planted in 2011. The vineyard now produces several wines and ciders all from its own land and using its own winery. Interestingly the vines here are all covered with envirofleece which not only helps to keep bugs away, it apparently is also deterrent to the sheep grazing here throughout the year and which used to help themselves to the vines! The reds are below the winery.....
.....and the whites above....
Many of the wines are award winning and the whole vineyard is organic, being approved and certified by the Soil Association. The winery and visitor centre also has a restaurant, Appleton's at the vineyard, run by a well-renowned chef formerly working with Jamie Oliver at Fifteen.

We tried one of the white wines, Merope which was very pleasant with an elderflower taste
and then the red, Black Ewe Red 2014 that we had read about and tasty it is too, if quite expensive.
The red won a silver award this year in the International Wine Challenge. We shall enjoy the bottle later in the year - maybe a Christmas toast to Trevibban! British wines won 120 medals at the International event this year - brilliant!

Interestingly, Liz, the owner, told us that they now work with a vineyard in Bradford-on-Avon which has grown white varieties for a number of years but was about to sell up. Trevibban Mill now takes all the grapes from them to make into wines here at their winery which gives them both a win-win relationship.