2

2
Text Box: and online store. In addition we have an exciting brand new organic Bramley liqueur, made from our neighbour’s organic Bramley apples and the new vintage of our traditional English organic Mulled wine, which is gaining quite a reputation amongst Sedlescombe’s many fans, is also available. Sedlescombe Regent Red wins Award One of the best wines to go with traditional Christmas fare is of course a Red. But an English Red? Why not? Some media reports are talking of a likely red wine boom in UK vineyards. See http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-43821520091110?pageNumber=6&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true “The current trend among consumers is for red wines from cool climatic regions, which are characterized by a moderate alcohol content, freshness, and strong fruity notes. Acquaint your palette with the new red wines from the planet’s more temperate climatic zones.” ProWein 2009.  Fig. 1 Regent grapes used in our Red and Rosé wines Sedlescombe’s offering made from the Regent grape variety and matured in Oak barrels for five months, would take some beating, especially since it has a ‘Highly Commended’ award gained at the national Wine of the Year Competition, run by the UK Vineyards Association. With a little less alcohol content (11.5% instead of the more usual 13+% norm for most hotter climate Reds) this wine is probably more suited to Christmas lunchtime drinking as well as being more accessible for the female of the species (whose ability to process alcohol is slower than for men) than the high alcohol imported reds. This wine shows excellent red wine character, including deep crimson colour, fruity aroma, balanced components and a rich oaky complexity. A truly sumptuous offering, to give your Christmas a real taste of local luxury. Try some! Bubbly Disaster! Have you ever imaged what 1,000 bottles of Bubbly would look like after being dropped from a great height onto a concrete floor? No? Well neither had we - not until last May, that is. That was when we received a truly horrendous telephone call from the certified organic Sussex Winery that turns our Sedlescombe base wine into Sparkling Wine. The message was that the remaining 1,000 bottles of our 2006 Bodiam Brut had been dropped from a gyro-pallet when the machine unexpectedly rotated in the opposite direction to normal. What a waste of good Fizz! To help mitigate our losses, something we are required to do by Law (due to our claim against them for the loss incurred) we have acquired some Quality English Sparkling Wine, made from certified organically grown Kentish grapes from the 2004 vintage. The varieties in this wine are the classic Champagne varieties: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. This exceptional quality wine won a Bronze at the Decanter World Wine Awards earlier this year and a Silver at the UKVA Competition in 2007. This wine has it all: maturity, balance, fine long lasting mousse and exquisite yeasty undertones. Just right to kick off your celebrations in style! Green Manure Here’s a view of our Regent vineyard taken 6th December showing the green manure crop growing in alternate alleyways. The crop consists of Winter Beans, Winter Rye, Winter Vetch, Winter Rape and Fodder Raddish. It was sown during the first week of September. By next May it should be about 2 meters high with lots of attractive white and yellow flowers. It will then be cut and turned into the soil to increase fertility