On June 21^st, after a rainy day, a large group of us were so lucky to have a very pleasant sunny evening for our trip to the Highdown Vineyard at Ferring.  Lucky because the tour started with a talk by the vineyard winemaker, Aly Englefield, actually among the vines.   Aly is passionate about viticulture and this shone through as she talked about her hard work, starting with pruning from January to April, constant surveillance for pests and diseases during the Summer, through to harvesting and winemaking at just the right point in the autumn.  A day late with the picking and the grapes could be harvested by birds or destroyed by an early frost.  Winemaking is a very risky business!!

Following our talk we adjourned to the tearoom where we were able to taste five wines. This was the first time I had tasted British wine that I actually liked!  After our tasting we were able to buy some wine in the vineyard shop and from the numbers buying it was clear that many of us were impressed with the Englefields’ 2010 vintage!  Many thanks to Lesley Hiley for organising such a pleasant outing.  If you like wine and didn’t manage to come on this trip then I would recommend that you try it sometime – click here for more details.

click here for more photos.