Breaky Bottom Vineyard Visit
I'd decided to walk some of the South Downs Way this summer, starting with the first section from Eastbourne to Southease the day before this (you can read about it on my walking blog if you're into that sort of thing). I'd then stayed the night in Lewes.
After lunch we walked from there to Breaky Bottom, which was a much more pleasant stroll - initially up a quiet country lane, and then through undulating fields strewn with hay bales, with views beyond to the rolling hills of the South Downs. The ground was parched almost to the point of golden from the recent heatwave, and added to the silvery blue skies and the chalky white tracks it made for a serene and almost surreal landscape. There was quite a strong, dry summer breeze before we descended into Breaky Bottom's sheltered little valley. Very atmospheric. The vineyard is in quite a hidden spot, and only really comes into view once you've almost arrived, so it's a wonderful surprise, and particularly among the parched yellow gold fields, now mostly bare of their crop, it had the feeling of an oasis in the middle of a desert.
One of our group said it felt as though we had suddenly been transported to France, and the stone farmhouse and winery buildings among the vines definitely gave that sense - perhaps somehow reflecting Peter's part French ancestry.
We knocked on the door on arrival, and after a short while Peter came out to greet us. We were all instantly charmed by this delightful and fascinating man, and spent the next three wonderful hours completely enthralled by him. We started with a short vineyard tour, and I was impressed by how wonderfully verdant and unblemished the leaves of the vines were, despite weeks of drought - and was also happy to see how heavily laden with fruit they were. Peter predicts a very good yield this year. We saw a row of Seyval Blanc, and a row of Chardonnay, but didn't see the Pinots - Peter seemed to be keen to get down to business and start the tasting!
The tasting was the most leisurely, sociable, and just downright delightful of any vineyard tasting I've ever done. We were sat for about two hours, and tasted four of Peter's wines during that time, so had a good long time to savour and discuss each one. Although we did compare tasting notes a bit, Peter was just as (or perhaps more) interested in telling us about the person each wine was named after. These were all fascinating and accomplished individuals, and all friends or family members (or family friends) of Peter's. The conversation constantly went off at tangents, and Peter had a charming habit of asking us to remind him how he got on to a particular tangent. We roamed over the English wine industry in general - many of the other famous winemakers are close friends (or in one or two cases quite the opposite) of Peter's, and also some of the trials and tribulations he has had to deal with in over 40 years of winemaking in this wonderful location.
Perhaps the first of the four wines we tried had a slightly muted reception, but from the second onwards it was hit after hit, for me the "Cuvee Koizumi Yakumo" (Seyval Blanc 2010) and the "Cuvee Gerard Hoffnung" (Chardonnay / Pinot Noir / Pinot Meunier 2009) being the stand-out favourites. By coincidence these were the two we had tasted on Tuesday in Regents Park in preparation for coming here, but of course being in situ at the vineyard and with the winemaker talking to us while we were tasting them made for a much heightened experience.
Sadly by around 5 o' clock it seemed there were other demands on Peter's time - he had some sort of plumbing issue to deal with, and feeling we had already taken up quite a large chunk of his day we suggested it was time for us to head off.
We said our goodbyes to Peter, and reluctantly left Breaky Bottom behind, walking back through that surreal landscape, slightly in a trance, as though half waking from a daydream.
When planning the trip I looked around to see if I might be able to visit a vineyard while in the area, and thus I first heard about Breaky Bottom.
Well, sort of. The words "Breaky Bottom" are actually written on the wall of my lounge at home, on a map of the "Vineyards of the United Kingdom", which my parents had picked up in the 1970s at one of the very first English wine fairs. We think it was quite possibly in the year Breaky Bottom was established. As one of the trailblazers of the English wine renaissance, and with that nice historical connection to my parents, plus having read what an idyllic setting it was in, I was now very keen to visit.
I met the rest of today's group for the vineyard visit at Lewes station. We got the train together to Southease, and from there walked to the slightly surprisingly named Abergavenny Arms (we're a long way from Abergavenny!) in Rodmell for lunch. We somehow managed to stray off the South Downs Way on the way there, and walked along a busy road for a section, which wasn't much fun. Lunch was decent enough, and although the pub was not perhaps the most achingly quaint of country pubs it met our needs adequately enough.
After lunch we walked from there to Breaky Bottom, which was a much more pleasant stroll - initially up a quiet country lane, and then through undulating fields strewn with hay bales, with views beyond to the rolling hills of the South Downs. The ground was parched almost to the point of golden from the recent heatwave, and added to the silvery blue skies and the chalky white tracks it made for a serene and almost surreal landscape. There was quite a strong, dry summer breeze before we descended into Breaky Bottom's sheltered little valley. Very atmospheric. The vineyard is in quite a hidden spot, and only really comes into view once you've almost arrived, so it's a wonderful surprise, and particularly among the parched yellow gold fields, now mostly bare of their crop, it had the feeling of an oasis in the middle of a desert.
One of our group said it felt as though we had suddenly been transported to France, and the stone farmhouse and winery buildings among the vines definitely gave that sense - perhaps somehow reflecting Peter's part French ancestry.
We knocked on the door on arrival, and after a short while Peter came out to greet us. We were all instantly charmed by this delightful and fascinating man, and spent the next three wonderful hours completely enthralled by him. We started with a short vineyard tour, and I was impressed by how wonderfully verdant and unblemished the leaves of the vines were, despite weeks of drought - and was also happy to see how heavily laden with fruit they were. Peter predicts a very good yield this year. We saw a row of Seyval Blanc, and a row of Chardonnay, but didn't see the Pinots - Peter seemed to be keen to get down to business and start the tasting!
The tasting was the most leisurely, sociable, and just downright delightful of any vineyard tasting I've ever done. We were sat for about two hours, and tasted four of Peter's wines during that time, so had a good long time to savour and discuss each one. Although we did compare tasting notes a bit, Peter was just as (or perhaps more) interested in telling us about the person each wine was named after. These were all fascinating and accomplished individuals, and all friends or family members (or family friends) of Peter's. The conversation constantly went off at tangents, and Peter had a charming habit of asking us to remind him how he got on to a particular tangent. We roamed over the English wine industry in general - many of the other famous winemakers are close friends (or in one or two cases quite the opposite) of Peter's, and also some of the trials and tribulations he has had to deal with in over 40 years of winemaking in this wonderful location.
Perhaps the first of the four wines we tried had a slightly muted reception, but from the second onwards it was hit after hit, for me the "Cuvee Koizumi Yakumo" (Seyval Blanc 2010) and the "Cuvee Gerard Hoffnung" (Chardonnay / Pinot Noir / Pinot Meunier 2009) being the stand-out favourites. By coincidence these were the two we had tasted on Tuesday in Regents Park in preparation for coming here, but of course being in situ at the vineyard and with the winemaker talking to us while we were tasting them made for a much heightened experience.
Sadly by around 5 o' clock it seemed there were other demands on Peter's time - he had some sort of plumbing issue to deal with, and feeling we had already taken up quite a large chunk of his day we suggested it was time for us to head off.
We said our goodbyes to Peter, and reluctantly left Breaky Bottom behind, walking back through that surreal landscape, slightly in a trance, as though half waking from a daydream.
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