A fine day out , apart from autumnal dampness to start.
The small peloton set off from the station, trundling along leafy lanes, sometimes a single lane width, occasionally dripping from the previous night's thunderstorm, temperature hovering around 14°, everyone with a variant of arm covering. Taking a convoluted route avoiding the main road into a small village, we passed a monastery, along a private lane to our first vineyard, enclosed by deer fencing, belonging to the monastery, but only to stop and see. Moving swiftly through the village, we quickly returned to a country lane and after 5 km, we stopped for our first tasting, warmly greeted at the entrance by the owner.
She very generously let us pour our own wine of the 2 consecutive vintages, very different from each other. It is a tiny vineyard and operation, unknown much beyond the local vicinity, yet both wines were unanimously received as very, very good. The wines we tasted were made at a larger local winery by one of england's leading winemakers who started his own personal sparkling wine journey at the vineyard by the monastery. While we chatted we re-filled our glasses, the heavens opened and rain poured down. It was short-lived and we rode away, mostly downhill, for about 10 minutes to our lunch stop.
Firstly, we tasted their 2 wines from the same year but with different levels of dosage - the liquid, yeasty and sugary mixture to start the second fermentation in bottle, where the magic happens to create fizzy wine. Interesting to try but not as good as the previous vineyard's wines. Yet our food was delicious. The sun appeared and we strolled around the edge of the vineyard looking at the vines, the ripening grapes and old 'farm' machinery adjacent to the modern barn. Retrieving our bikes from the bike rack, we rode another 8 km to our final destination. The last 600 m having an average incline of 10%,
@sagefly 's gizmo reading 12.7% near the top. After the day's gently rolling terrain, this was a slight shock as we gasped for air into our heaving lungs.
Coasting down the driveway amongst the vines, the South Downs in the distance, under the late afternoon sun, was a glorious view. Past the winery to the owners house and tasting room in a converted barn, we met the smiling owner. She led us through a professionally presented tasting, seated at the white tablecloth-covered long table, laid out with 4 glasses for each of us. Four wines led to six, all quite superb, bar one. We said our thanks and rolled down - thankfully - the lane to find our respective ways home.
We all agreed a fine days outing. To be repeated in some format next year?
