Sugrue South Downs

Sugrue South Downs Cult English wines by Dermot & Ana Sugrue.
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Cult English wines by Dermot & Ana Sugrue

The Trouble With Dreams 202220 YEARS, 13 VINTAGES, 1 DREAM We have a great deal planned to celebrate Sugrue South Downs’...
21/06/2026

The Trouble With Dreams 2022

20 YEARS, 13 VINTAGES, 1 DREAM
 
We have a great deal planned to celebrate Sugrue South Downs’ 20th anniversary in 2026, but this year’s release of The Trouble With Dreams was always destined to be something special.
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When I planted my first vineyard at Storrington Priory in 2006, I had a single ambition: to create a truly world-class sparkling wine grown on South Downs chalk, inspired by the great grower Champagnes of the CĂ´te des Blancs, but unmistakably English in character.
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It may have taken us 20 years and 13 vintages, but dreams do come true.
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The 2022 growing season was extraordinary. The UK experienced its warmest year on record, with temperatures exceeding 40°C for the first time in meteorological history. Yet, our old, deep-rooted vines – now averaging 17 years across our South Downs vineyards – were able to access sufficient water through the drought, producing fruit of remarkable balance and concentration.
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The resulting base wines were forward and complex, with the structure to benefit from some younger French oak barriques in addition to older, larger demi-muids. Thanks to the ripeness of the vintage, we were able to avoid malolactic fermentation entirely and disgorge with a low dosage of just 6g/L.
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The Trouble With Dreams 2022 is open, bright, textural, salty, and electric, and speaks entirely of its place, its vintage, and its winemaker – just as I dreamt all those years ago.

The Crouch Valley is no more the new Burgundy than the South Downs is the new Champagne. Similarities abound, but let’s ...
16/06/2026

The Crouch Valley is no more the new Burgundy than the South Downs is the new Champagne. Similarities abound, but let’s allow each region to exist for itself. Discuss.

HOWEVER – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – for me the Crouch Valley IS the most exciting emerging wine region in the world, which is why we’re now firmly planting our flag in Essex and working closely with a handful of exceptional farmers with deep roots growing Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for our still wine projects.

While the super-ripe 2022 Crouch Valley Pinot Noir came entirely from Mason’s Point Vineyard, our intensely perfumed and beautifully elegant 2024 is a ‘village’ blend from Mason’s Point, Martin’s Lane, and Crows Lane, and is due to be released later in the autumn.

We’ll also be putting top-quality fruit from Coggeshall, South Bank, Althorne, and Creeksea vineyards to good use. But much more on that later… Either way, remember all these names – they are the future! And, my, is it bright.

🗺️ Diane Shearer

31/05/2026

Why RosĂŠ Ex Machina 2018?

I am always late. Late to harvest, late to disgorge, and late to release. And our wines drink all the better for it. Tho...
22/05/2026

I am always late. Late to harvest, late to disgorge, and late to release. And our wines drink all the better for it. Though every now and then, I wish I’d held onto a bottle for just a little longer.

While tasting – ah heck, who am I kidding? – drinking Rosé Ex Machina 2018 with Jancis Robinson over lunch at the winery last year, we both scribbled a few words in our notebooks:

“Deliciously fruity and seductive with perfect fruit/acid balance from this super-ripe vintage. 17.5 points,” wrote Jancis. High praise from the notoriously tough scorer. My own note was less eloquent: “Holy mother... Hit the brakes. LATE RELEASE?!”

Here was masses of juicy, mouth-coating red fruit, a frothy mousse, perfect pin-prick bubbles, and a long, savoury finish. Unfalteringly delicious, I decided there and then to hold back the remaining undisgorged bottles in our cellar, giving the wine a full 80 months on lees.

Cellar-aged sparkling rosé is a rarity, especially in England, but the exceptional 2018 vintage produced a wine built to go the distance. That year, we made the risky decision to “green harvest”, allowing the vines to focus their energies on producing impeccable fruit. And so they did.

Coming entirely from Coldharbour Vineyard – a single site planted in 2005 in Pulborough, West Sussex – Rosé Ex Machina 2018 comprises 70% Pinot Noir, 20% Pinot Meunier, and 10% Chardonnay with the addition of 20% red wine from Pinot Noir to give it its beautiful colour and depth.

Available while it lasts via the link in our bio.

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We dined like kings and queens with an Italian-inspired menu cooked over charcoal from and .luke for our second Sugrue ...
20/05/2026

We dined like kings and queens with an Italian-inspired menu cooked over charcoal from and .luke for our second Sugrue Sunday of the year.

If you haven’t eaten at .restaurant or HH&Co, fix that sharpish because these boys’ food is nothing short of phenomenal. Case in point:

Pane e salumi, Seahorse AnchoĂŻade
ROCK STORY MV

Antipasti
BaccalĂ  mantecato, sepia al nero, scallop crudo, bottarga
Pomodoro Affumicati
Peperoni alla Piemontese
THE TROUBLE WITH DREAMS MV

Monkfish alla Brace
BONKERS V2

Pollo alla Diavola
Zucchine alla Scapece; Fagioli all’Uccelletto; Insalata di Fi*****io
ROSÉ EX MACHINA 2018

Pesche alla Brace
PRECOGNITION PINOT MEUNIER GIN

Parmigiano Stagionato (5 anni), Aceto Balsamico Invecchiato

If you’d like to be added to the waiting lists for the remaining Sugrue Sundays, do get in touch in the usual way. Otherwise, keep your eyes on the mailing list to soon hear about our next series of events in August…

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10/05/2026

The Crouch Valley in Essex is in my view the most exciting emerging wine region in the world. What we can do in there specifically for growing Pinot Noir for red wine is astonishing.

A follow up to the inaugural single-vineyard 2022 vintage, we’re going to be releasing our 2024 ‘villages’ Crouch Valley Pinot Noir later this year, with a little pre-order offer going out to the mailing list soon ⬆️ ✉️

Can’t wait for you to try it.

An Englishman, an Irishman, and two Scotsman walk into a winery… and smashed it out of the park for the first of this ...
03/05/2026

An Englishman, an Irishman, and two Scotsman walk into a winery… and smashed it out of the park for the first of this year’s Sugrue Sundays, bringing a taste of two of our favourite kitchens – and – down to ours for the afternoon. Do spring menus get any better than this? ⬇️

Aperitif
ROCK STORY MV

ComtĂŠ shortbread, Kinneuchar Inn merguez, Olives Noires de Nyons
THE TROUBLE WITH DREAMS MV

Norfolk asparagus, Sauce Mousseline
BONKERS V2

Chargrilled leg of lamb, peas, broad bean, sheep’s curd, wild garlic and mint, Jersey Royal pearls
ROSÉ EX MACHINA 2018

Blood orange pavlova & French House madeleines
DEAR NOODLES 2023

Massive shoutout to for stepping up and making sure the boys ran to time…

While all tickets sold out on release, we’re running a waiting list for the other Sugrue Sundays - ping us message here or email us to be added.

Rock Story is a wine that Ana and I make, quite deliberately, for the restaurant table. Rich and mouth-filling, with a s...
24/04/2026

Rock Story is a wine that Ana and I make, quite deliberately, for the restaurant table. Rich and mouth-filling, with a satin-soft texture and fresh acidity, it has serious gastronomic intent – just the sort of bottle we’d want to see us through a meal.

Dramatically different in style to our single-vintage, Chardonnay-led sparkling cuvĂŠes, Rock Story is a multi-vintage, Pinot-dominant wine from vineyards nourished by chalk, limestone, sandstone, and clay across the South Downs and beyond.

It is, in many ways, a composite of my winemaking over the last twenty years in England. A unique tale of six vintages between 2011 and 2022, it includes 40% reserve wines, which lend Rock Story its complexity and depth.

Rock Story is poured exclusively at restaurants that we return to time and again: Angela Hartnett’s and , Mitch & Ben Tonks’ restaurants in Devon in Dorset, Neil Borthwick’s , in the New Forest, and

Until now, it has not been available beyond those dining rooms. But, as so many of you have asked to enjoy it at home, we have set aside a small amount from our cellar.

From this year, Rock Story will be released to subscribers twice annually – in the spring and the autumn – offered by the case for a short window. A chance, perhaps, to keep a little of your favourite house pour within reach...

Available to purchase until midnight on Sunday 26th April – or until stocks last.

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Out came the library rares for April’s Cellar Table dinner with Mark Hix: The Trouble With Dreams 2011 (our third ever v...
21/04/2026

Out came the library rares for April’s Cellar Table dinner with Mark Hix: The Trouble With Dreams 2011 (our third ever vintage, bottled as Sugrue Pierre) on outrageous form with Mark’s freshly foraged morel risotto; Rosé Ex Machina 2016 - akin to aged Volnay with bubbles - a fine companion to the red mullet; and the briary, spicy Crouch Valley Pinot Noir 2022 got the thumbs up with lamb cutlets ‘Reform’.

4 remaining spaces for Mark’s next dinner on 22nd May are available first come, first served via our website. Or why not join Mark for one of his legendary Kitchen Table lunches and dinners down in Charmouth?

12/04/2026

If manners maketh man, barrels maketh wine. Our winery grows, now with over 100 wooden barrels of all shapes and sizes.

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Bee Tree Vineyard
Wivelsfield Green
RH177QS

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