A year after Sussex Winelands and Rother District Council launched the Rother Wine Triangle, a trail of six vineyards in the Rother valley, a new Rother Wine Triangle vineyard bus tour has been introduced, starting on Sunday 28 June.
Helping to establish the area as a tourist destination are six participating vineyards: Charles Palmer Vineyard, Mountfield Winery, Oastbrook, Oxney Organic Estate, Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard and Tillingham. They form a group promoting a new English wine region called Rother River Wine, encompassing the valleys of the river Rother and its tributaries, the Brede and Tillingham.
The Rother valley, where once hops were widely grown, is now home to vineyards and wineries producing award-winning wines. With a warm sunny microclimate and soils of sand, silt, clay and sandstone ideal for growing Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and Blanc, the region is fast becoming known for producing high quality sparkling and still wines.
The bus tours, running every Sunday from June to October, start at either Robertsbridge or Rye stations where a comfortable, air-conditioned minibus meets the London train. Travelling through the beautiful scenery of the Rother valley and High Weald, visitors are taken to three vineyards, learn about the winemaking process and try a selection of four wines at each stop. There is the opportunity to try locally produced cheese and charcuterie at lunch held at one of the vineyards along the way.
The introduction by the winemakers, who are passionate about their business and rightly proud of their wines, is perfect for both those who want to learn more about wine making and the area, or for wine enthusiasts keen to extend their knowledge of regional wines. The wine tasting takes place in comfortable and impressive barns overlooking the rows of vines and the stunning countryside. Wine can be purchased from the vineyards with free delivery for six or more bottles.
The tours are weekly on Sundays, with a different combination of vineyards each week with four starting and returning from Robertsbridge station and two from Rye, and cost £130 per person.
More information and booking can be found here.
Image Credits: Juliet Duff .
The Rother Triangle is gaining national recognition and this initiative by Nick and America of Oastbrook, supported by RDC, is a fantastic way to see all that our wineries have to offer.
Terrific idea, and I hope they’ll extend it with more departures from Rye station (all I could find on the site were departures from Robertsbridge) as Rye makes more sense due to the large number of visitors staying here all year round. I’d also love to see other possibilities than Sunday morning, which rules us out completely as we’re in the church choir!
The website could be easier to navigate, too, with a straightforward list of departure dates, times, and locations. But I understand it’s early days yet, and wish the organizers the best of luck. I’d visit far more vineyards if transportation were easier — up till now we’ve had the option of expensive taxis or drinking and driving, which, having been the victim of a drunk driver myself, I don’t do.