Halfpenny Green Vineyards - Staffordshire, Rodington Vineyard and Wroxeter Roman Vineyard - Shropshire : 6th October, 2016

After 2 lovely days walking Glyndŵr's Way, we had another lovely, sunny day so it seemed a shame not to go out and enjoy it......with a Sassy drive to vineyards of course!

Halfpenny Green Vineyards
High on our list to visit has been Halfpenny Green vineyard as it is a very well established and very highly praised vineyard. This is where many of the newer vineyards, like Kerry Vale, Llaethlliw - and the next one on our visit list today, Rodington to name only 3, take their wine to be made and bottled. It is in a beautiful location and it was much fun finding it along little windy lanes, perfect for a Sassy ride! The vineyard was first planted way back in 1983 so it is one of the oldest established and with its now 30 acres it is also one of the largest in the UK.

Its wines have won many awards and continue to do so. We were therefore excited to finally visit...however, although they are doing enormously well, we were a little disappointed. We went to look at the wines displayed - along with lots of other British drinks, gins and vodkas etc, but no-one asked us if we needed help. The restaurant and retail units though were very busy - and maybe if we had booked a tour, our experience would have been better. As it was, we just decided to take a couple of the reds to sample - choosing the Penny Red, a blend of Pinot Noir, Dornfelder, Triomphe Rondo and Regner 

and Penny Red Reserve, a blend of Rondo, Pinot Noir and Dornfelder. Interesting that the Dornfelder grape is used both here and Wroxeter. They also have a 2014 Rondo but at £29.95 we thought it rather expensive. We sampled the Penny Red that evening and have to say it was really very good - so maybe the Rondo could be worth it for a celebration!

Rodington Vineyard
So, as we were in the area, we had decided that we would go to visit Rodington Vineyard with their Blue Tractor wines which we had sampled at the Ludlow Food Fair and thought it very promising. It was a bit of a mission to find the vineyard but well worth the getting lost bit! We don't have a satnav in Sassy so in the end relied on the old, trusted method - ask a local! We discovered that the local council is working with them at the vineyard to get signage put up so I think finding the vineyard will become easier.

What a wonderful welcome we received from the Chahal family! Although they were busy picking, they took the time to even provide us with a cheese and pie lunch - really so kind. Manjit spent quite a lot of time telling us about the hard work they have all put in and about their plans for this beautiful location.

We sat sampling the wine and enjoying the lunch in the sunshine overlooking the vineyard with the Long Mynd and Caer Caradoc in one direction....

...and closer to us in the other direction overlooked by the Wrekin....just spectacular!

The 10 acre vineyard was bought only in 2005 when Ramdass Chahal, her father, wanted to get back to agriculture and after much discussion and advice, decided to plant vines which were first planted in 2009! The blue tractor, Bernie, is sitting in front of the vines and the building which will become the winery. The adjoining shop is quite well kitted out already and very spacious.

The tractor which features currently on the wine labels is symbolic for the family as it reminds Mr Chahal of early memories of farming. However the label will shortly be changed with the tractor taking a less central role - think he will always be special to the family though! It took the usual 3 years until their first harvest and so now the vineyard is producing its 4th year of wine production and have already won awards, no wonder! The sampling was extensive - Chris was the taster as I was driving! I did manage the odd sip! White vines grown are Ortega, Solaris, Bacchus and Seyval Blanc and the red  Rondo. The Solaris was very tasty - with that elderflower hint which it gives. And a blend of Ortega and Solaris was also really good...

..as was the Rosé, made from the Rondo, skin and all. Then came the reds - the first was a Rondo which had no sugar added which tasted really good and the second a medium one with sugar added in the winemaking process, I think because the grapes were picked a bit earlier, and seemed to be a very easy to drink wine. We took our leave with samples in hand - we will order more when the card machine is up and running....and be back to see the progress which won't be far off I feel sure! The family have asked for help picking on their Facebook page and had a good response - still Ortega grapes waiting to be picked....

but nearing the end of the busy picking season now .......

Wroxeter Roman Vineyard
So last on our visits today was Wroxeter.

It was actually quite late in the afternoon as we arrived, finding Martin the owner pressing red grapes! You can book for a tour here too. The vineyard here is about 9 acres and was established originally by Martin's father in 1991.

Martin went on to continue the tradition and is now a well experienced winemaker with a great deal of knowledge....and many awards. The vineyard is in a lovely position again, in sandy soils very close to the Roman city of Viriconium -

well worth a visit in its own right.

Our first question for Martin was, Is there any Shropshire Red left? The answer was that is was unlikely!

Luckily as we searched in the mixed boxes on display, we did find 3 bottles - how good is that! We then tasted 3 whites (well mine were only sips), including the Regner which is a new one to us, an Italian grape, and was really good...

...along with the Solaris and a Madeleine Angevine. Then came a rosé, and almost finally the Roman Red.

Lucky for us, Martin was just sampling the newly bottled red (which we had heard about at the Ludlow Food Fair), a blend of Rondo and Dornfelder and it was really smooth and tasty...of course we had to bring a bottle home. It doesn't even have a name yet! An interesting thought that Martin shared with us was about the corks. His thoughts are that a cork is much more preferable to use because the wine is continually evolving in the bottle and with a cork this process can continue whereas with a screwtop, what you bottle is what you get, it doesn't allow the wine to breathe and change with age. Having saved the Shropshire Red for a year, I can really believe that is the case....

What a fascinating day - and Sassy loved it! Bit chilly by the time we got home with her hood down but it was well worth it! Looking forward to the next visit - hope you are too!

Hop Pocket revisit and recent tastings - Autumn, 2016

To keep you up-to-date....

We did revisit the wine shop at the Hop Pocket near Ledbury as they let us know that the Sixteen Ridges wine was in stock....we had to then of course sample and indeed it is a really tasty, quite light, red - most enjoyable. This red is a pinot noir. We do seem to be getting spoilt for choice on our favourite red!

Mid-September saw us at the Ludlow Food Fair which last year was at the beginning of our wine search really. Wroxeter vineyard were exhibiting again and the owner told us that their latest red, a Rondo, will be being bottled in the next few weeks. We decided that an imminent visit is needed. And so we finally drank the bottle of Shropshire Red which we had bought at last year's food fair - and my oh my, what a lovely red it is! Our imminent visit seems even more necessary! This Shropshire Red, a blend of Rondo and Dornfelder I believe, could easily top my favourite to date....

Another new vineyard was exhibiting at the food fair, Rodington near Shrewsbury (Blue Tractor Wines) and a sample at the fair seemed worthy of a future visit....

We also sampled a couple of the whites we had recently bought - Ragged Stone which we had acquired at the Hop Pocket. This is a blend of Seyval Blanc and Phoenix and the small vineyard is a walled garden at Bromesberrow Place in the Malvern Hills. This is a very pleasant and tasty white. We have also sampled the Hop Kilns white (see Hop Pocket entry....). This again was a Solaris - quite good but still not as good as Walton Brook!

We are hoping our visit to Wroxeter vineyard - and maybe another one or two - will be later this week so do hope you watch this space....

Holmfirth Vineyard, Holmbridge, West Yorkshire - 23rd September, 2016

We were visiting Chris's sister as she was making us all proud by taking part in a team triathlon, swimming in Harewood House Park lake near Leeds, an event supported and attended by the famous, Olympic medal winning and world record winners, the Brownlee brothers. Friends of hers took over for the cycle and run and they did so well - and so many hundreds of people took part raising money for the McMillan charity. Well done all of them.

So as we were there, we decided to visit maybe the most northerly vineyard in the country close to Holmfirth - symbolically, home of Last of the Summer Wine! We couldn't imagine what Compo would have made of it!

The vineyard has been here since 2007 and with its own winery and a very experienced winemaker who won winemaker of the year in England in 2008 and 2011, and who is making some excellent wines. As with many of the new vineyards, the visitor centre also provides good food and tours and wine courses.

Today we enjoyed a lovely light lunch ........and sampled the Solaris and the red which is a blend of Regent and Rondo.

The red is very good as is the Solaris, but the Solaris is not quite as tasty as my still favourite from Walton Brook.

The vineyard is set in a beautiful place, high in the Pennines overlooking Holme valley. It was lovely today. They have 7 acres here in total and it must be challenging to tend the vines on the steep hills.

Grapes grown are the whites: Seyval Blanc and Solaris and the reds: Regent and Rondo.

They also produce sparkling wines and a rosé.

We took a rosé home and sampled it later and it is a very pleasant wine. I guess at some stage we may have to find a taste for sparkling wines.....In the meantime, we are really enjoying finding such great reds! Cheers!

The Hop Pocket - Bishops Frome, Ledbury - 24th August, 2016

A little update on wine searching.....not quite a vineyard. I read last week about quite a lot of small vineyards in our area and some of them aren't open to the public but interestingly, a wine shop at the Hop Pocket Retail Centre does stock various local wines....and so a trip in Sassy was needed!

One of the wines I had read about was 16 Ridges, at Putley close to Ledbury but which isn't open to the public...but it has a Pinot Noir red and a really good story with lots of expertise based there...

Sadly today there was none for sale at the Hop Pocket but we'll be back...

In the meantime we purchased a trio of whites from small vineyards:

.....Beeches Vineyard at Upton Bishop, Hereford which produces a dry white blend - and which is a light, refreshing drink (quite like Liebfraumilch Chris thought....)

.....Hop Kilns Vineyard near Bromyard which produces a single variety white - Solaris. I will find that tasting interesting as the Solaris at Walton Brook is my favourite white so far....

.....Astley Vineyards near Stourport-on-Severn which produces several wines from its 5 acres - and has been doing so since the 1970's...today we took home a Madeline Angevine which we will enjoy I'm sure!

As far as I understand, each of the above are bottled at Three Choirs....open to debate on the latter 2 but the first one is definitely.

Another of the local suppliers which is doing really well with its sparkling wine is Castlebrook. The family here has been famous for 4 generations as asparagus growers but since 2006 have been producing award winning sparkling wines! Their vines were planted in 2004 - on a former Roman vineyard!!

White Castle Vineyard, Llanvetherine, Abergavenny - 12th August, 2016

It's been a while since we made our last vineyard trip so we were excited today to try out another Welsh one - not too far from home, and an excuse to have a drive in Sassy again! We have had a busy summer so far - lots of fun and not too bad weather. And we have revisited Kerry Vale in the meantime - and tried out some of our wine stash at home! Bolney and Chapel Down are still popular with us..

Robb and Nicola Merchant are the owners of White Castle vineyard and what a great job they are doing. They followed their dream and planted their first vines in 2008 and now have 5,000 vines in their 5 acre vineyard.

They have 6 grape varieties, 3 each of red and white - and I got the feeling that might not be the last......Currently their wine is made and bottled at Three Choirs, Newent, with its great experience it is the chosen winery by a lot of the new vineyards.

We arrived unannounced at the cellar door, open Friday-Sunday, on what ended up being a really busy day for them. We tasted 2 reds and the rosé. They also make a white wine and a Regent red, Robb's favourite! Rosé was our first tasting and it is a really good flavour and colour, perfect for a lunch drink, tasty. Then we tried the Rondo and that too is very impressive and not unlike the Rondo we have tasted at Llaethlliw and Kerry Vale. Then the Pinot Noir - and that is really good, slightly oaked which is to our taste -we found it a really good wine.

Nicola provides an excellent lunch platter of Welsh cheeses and salad which we enjoyed on the balcony of the lovely visitors' centre overlooking the vines sloping down towards us before choosing which wines to take home with us - Pinot Noir was top of the list!

Robb is now Chairman of the Welsh vineyards association so is very busy - but obviously really enjoying himself. He is well placed for vine advice as the national vine collection with over 450 grape varieties on offer, is just down the road from him! He was telling us that there are now over 700 vineyards in the UK - the number just keeps growing - a bit like our medal count at the Rio Olympics! Brilliant all round - looking unlikely that we will get round all of them any time soon!!! An enjoyable challenge though...

Lovells Vineyard, near Malvern - 5th July, 2016

Well - how lucky was I with my surprise birthday treat on Sunday last??......Carole King singing Tapestry in Hyde Park! 65,000 were there on a sunny evening in a lovely atmosphere and it was super to spend an evening with my middle daughter at such a special performance. Loved it - thank you, Carole..and Jane!

So it came to Monday and we were heading home.....but not quite yet. First we spent the night at Bosham near Chichester enjoying a tour along the south coast en route. (Maybe prefer the Wales coast.....). We had looked for vineyards close to this area and again were disappointed that some are not open to the public, others at restricted times, but then it's understandable. One of these was Titchfield, established in 1991 which just has 1 open day each year -but with 3 reds it was tempting to visit its shop outlet close to Southampton. However, the morning wasn't that brilliant and the route not that straightforward on the busy A27 and Chris wasn't feeling too good with a bad cold so we decided to leave it for another day (and maybe call to see if they do direct mail...). The journey wasn't really as intended as we ended up going north on the very busy A34 which wasn't a good driving experience being very stop-start. Once we found the A44 it was much more enjoyable again and we wound our way through some Cotswold towns then via Pershore to Upton-on-Severn. This is a really pretty little town - made famous in recent times for the bad flooding which today seemed hard to understand with the river far beneath its bridge. It also has 4 good festivals a year - a folk weekend followed by a jazz weekend and next up is a blues weekend before the final one in August with lots of '80's music - sounds fun!
It was then only a very short ride to Welland, the village where Lovells vineyard lies. And very impressive it is too.

The visitor centre is new and very nicely kitted out and Cathy was very helpful and gave us information about how they are developing. Established in 2010, this site occupies 10 acres - we enjoyed a pleasant walk in the vineyard with Pinot Noir in abundance...

....and strong wind breaks of alder to protect the vines. In addition, the family decided to take over the nearby Tiltridge vineyard in 2013  which had been established for 25 years and had the Elgar wines brand which Lovells have now adopted.

There is also additional vineyard that Lovells take care of at Coddington vineyard so now they have 10 different grape varieties on 15 acres. And the results are all looking, and more to the point, tasting very good and with well deserved awards. We tasted the Promenades, a light and dry white using a blend of Phoenix and Orion .....

...and we also tried the very tasty rosé, Sonatina with its Elgar moustache!

Their wines are currently made and bottled at Halfpenny Lane vineyards - like Kerry Vale and Llaethlliw.

Also produced are 2 other whites, Elgar - a blend and a single variety of Siegerrebe, tasted also at Three Choirs, along with the sparkling rosé, Ysobel, named after one of Elgar's Enigma variations.

Today we took home the Ysobel - a similar name to our youngest granddaughter....and a Promenades and a Sonatina.

A lot of Pinot Noir vine has been planted recently and they are hoping the red will soon follow - exciting! Most importantly, Cathy told us the vines have also recently been blessed so it is sure to be a good year! We'll be back!

And waiting for us at home will be some replacement Solaris from Walton Brook vineyard...much tasting to be done!

Chapel Down Vineyard, Tenterden, Kent - 2nd July, 2016

After a lovely time with our daughter and her family on the Friday evening and a relaxing morning, we set off in search of more vines! This time my co-driver on the way was our eldest granddaughter with hood down and in the sun and our middle granddaughter accompanied me on the return journey, hood up in the rain but we didn't mind!
Kent is probably the county with the most and possibly oldest vineyards in the country. Many of them though only produce sparkling wines. Which of course is fine but not completely in our remit of searching for the best red...and anyway it means we can immediately discount some visits which is as well with so very many to go!

Chapel Down however has not 1 but 2 or more reds so we were looking forward to this very much. Again, Chapel Down has a very fine and new visitor centre and winery and very good restaurant. We were happy to find that we could easily put a picnic together in their shop with lots of local cheeses and so on.

We enjoyed a super family picnic in the herb garden next to the vines.

Chapel Down began its successful journey 13 years ago to now have become the largest English wine producer with 100 acres of vineyards, increased to 326 acres by other sites growing for them under lease. Their wines are sold in many top restaurants and at Marks and Spencer and Waitrose for instance.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, hen parties are really enjoying wine tastings as part of their celebrations and there were 2 such parties here today!

The main grapes grown are Bacchus, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay; the sparkling wines figure quite a lot as is usual especially in this south east corner with the perfect "terroir".

I left Chris and our son-in-law to tasting today, I was having too much fun with my daughter and little girls. We even saw a flock, is it a flock or a herd?, of alpacas...

The boys made the decision to take home Union Red (a blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir Precoce, Rondo and Dornfelder) and Wickham Estate red having decided the Pinot Noir alone was more like the usual English fruity red and may need laying down a little.
The dark clouds began to gather over the vines...

.....so we decided at the right time to head for home - all the girls wanted to go in Sassy I think...

It was with much interest that we sampled the reds later and wow, the Union red is the absolute best so far!

It really is a good red with a smooth taste and sufficient tannins to make it not taste English - if you know what I mean. I know in the end it is a matter of taste.....it's going to be fun to see if we can beat it....