Blanc de Blancs
£30
Chardonnay at its brightest: lemon, green apple and a gentle pastry note, with fine bubbles and a crisp, chalky finish. Polished enough for a toast but especially good with seafood or creamy cheeses.
Wadhurst
Bewl Water Vineyard is a small East Sussex estate with roots that reach back through some of the county’s earliest modern vine plantings. Bacchus vines first planted here in the 1970s sit alongside Pinot Noir established in 2005, giving the family team a rare combination of mature character and room to experiment. The scale is deliberately intimate: five acres, hand-picked fruit and wines made in small batches rather than by production-line formula. That hands-on approach runs from the vineyard through to the finished bottle, with a growing collection of traditional-method sparkling wines that lets individual grapes and vintages speak clearly. Today, Bewl Water’s bottles travel further than its visitor programme. There are no regular public opening hours, but the online shop makes this tucked-away vineyard easy to discover — a little corner of the High Weald sending thoughtful East Sussex wine out into the wider world.
Five south-facing acres sit close to Bewl Water on the clay-rich soils of the High Weald. Mature Bacchus vines, originally planted in the 1970s, share the site with Pinot Noir planted in 2005 and classic varieties used for traditional-method sparkling wine. Hand-picking and small-scale farming keep the work close to the fruit, while limited machinery and careful biodiversity management suit both the landscape and the estate’s quietly individual style.
WINEMAKER
Ashton Radford-Kirby works with the family team to turn the vineyard’s hand-picked fruit into small-batch wines with a clear sense of place. The approach is practical and light-handed: protect the character of the fruit, give traditional-method sparkling wines the time they need, and let the contrast between mature Bacchus and Pinot Noir shape a range that feels unmistakably local.
The Collection
£30
Chardonnay at its brightest: lemon, green apple and a gentle pastry note, with fine bubbles and a crisp, chalky finish. Polished enough for a toast but especially good with seafood or creamy cheeses.
£30
Pinot Noir brings red-apple fruit, subtle berry notes and a rounded, savoury edge. Long lees ageing adds toast and texture without losing the freshness that keeps the glass lively.
£36
Ripe orchard fruit and citrus lead into brioche, toasted nuts and a clean mineral finish. A mature traditional-method sparkling wine with enough depth for dinner and enough freshness for a celebratory glass.
Bewl Water Oast Butts Lane Cousley Wood
Wadhurst
TN5 6EX