Wine and Art, A Great Day Out

The weather was superb, the vines are starting to flower setting up bud bloom for this years crop of grapes and our budding artists were poised and waiting.

Meeting at the wonderful award winning Carr Taylor vineyard in the heart of glorious East Sussex this multi-day experience consisted of a half day vineyard tour, tutored wine tasting and lunch. The afternoon was spent with professional artists Katie Sollohub. The eager beavers were mum and two daughters as well as English Vine Tour Director Georgie Furst and able water carrier and all round gofer Ben.

The vines are in full swing now with excellent growth and flower bust, forming the buds for this years harvest and future wine for us all to enjoy. Dave, our tour guide was excellent as usual and entertained us with his knowledge and wit. On sampling was Carr taylor's dry white 1066, Alexis dry, dry Rose, sparkling Brut, Sparkling Rose. All were excellent and offer great value for money. Next up were the fruit wines, enjoyed over ice, with the sparkling wines or even still wines.

After lunch our resident artist, Katie Sollohub took command of the group. Introducing the tutorial and discussing with all about various artists, styles, materials and themes. Talking the group through colour, style, method, material the art flowed like wine! Colour was everywhere as were multi-coloured hands, giggles, laughter and a whole lot of artistic fun. Each student had to use a variety of at least 3 different types of brushes and three different types of paint/colour medium. Using large white paper on boards, swapping ideas off each other the afternoon was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

A very special thanks to Katie, Roopa and her family, Georgie and Carr Taylor for making this such a unique and enjoyable day!

We plan to organise more tours of this sort including digital photography workshops. Also check out Georgie's blog for the process behind the workshop.

Hastings Sea-Food Festival, 19th September

Forth Coming, must see event!

One of the most successful recent Sussex events is without a doubt the Hastings Sea-Food Festival. A celebration of local food, wines and sustainable fishing. Organised by Hastings Borough Council this event has grown from 8,000 to 50,000 in only 3 years. So much so that hotels gain bookings from France, Germany, Spain and even further a field.

This year, English Vine Tours are organising the Events Marquee for Saturday 19th September. Promoting local wines and foods in 3 one-hour tastings at the low cost of only £12.50 per ticket per event.

First event, 12-1pm is Organic English Wine with Sedlescombe Vineyards. Established by Roy and Irma cook, Sedlescombe are amongst the finest English producers of organic wines. Located in the gorgeous Sussex hamlet of Sedlescombe Roy and Irma completely embrace the organic lifestyle, even to the extent of building their own home. 6 wines will be on offer with an insight into the difficulties and the joys of producing organic wines in the UK.

2nd event, 2pm-3pm, is a combination entitled English Wines with Curry. Matching the unique wines from Taylor and Shroff (Carr Taylor) made exclusively to match hot and spicy foods with some fine Indian nibbles provided by Jali Restaurant. Presenting will be Alex Carr Taylor, the award winning wine maker at Carr Taylor and Benjamin Furst of Taylor and Shroff. Having enjoyed a sample of these wines with Jali's Indian cuisine people can enjoy the full experience at Jali as they will be the very first Indian restaurant in the UK to be listing the unique wines from Taylor and Shroff.

3rd event, 4pm-5pm is entitled, The Art and Science of Making Wine. Presented by Plumpton College, Paul Harley and Plumpton students. Plumpton is now one of the finest viticulture and vinification colleges in Europe with students from across the globe. An institution we should all be very proud of indeed. Sampling 4-6 wines as made by the students at Plumpton and available for sale on the day after or during the presentation.

For any further details or ticket enquiries please contact Ben or Georgie from English Vine Tours or Stephen Potter from Hastings Borough Council. Tickets are available to reserve from July onwards.

The South of England Show 2009

Once again the weather turned out great for this superb annual event held near the Sussex village of Ardingy. The South of England Show (SOES) is arguably the largest agricultural show/festival in the UK today. Hundreds of exhibits, shows, stalls, English Cheeses, Relishes, Wines etc etc.

The English Food & Wine Pavillion proved to amongst the most popular destination for festival revelers. Free samplings of some of the finest produce in the UK, cheeses, chutneys, pickles, curry sauces, wines, chocolates, ice creams, oils and much more.

English Vine Tours were of course there promoting their superb English Vineyard Tours for small private and corporate groups. On sale with English Vine Tours were also the superb organic wines from Meopham Vineyards in Kent. EVT were promoting their forth coming Vine & Art tour on 27th June. Visiting Carr Taylor Vineyards near Hastings for a half day vineyard tour followed by an afternoon art tutorial with a professional artist. As well as two full day vineyard tours for 22nd July and 22nd August.

On either side of the English Vine Tour Stand were two superb local producers of Indian relishes and chutneys. Meher of The Spice Shelf makes all her own chutneys and relishes, recipes hand down by her mother. Mark & Barbara from The Relish In Spice Co were on the other side sampling their home made chutneys, sauces and relishes too. Not so spicy but completely natural ingredients and now available in Waitrose.

Once again the SOES, despite the downturn and doom and gloom, was a raging success with thousands visiting every day.