Sussex wine is wine produced in the historic county of Sussex in southern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, a region divided for administrative purposes into East Sussex and

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

(as well as the unitary authority of Brighton and Hove). In 2016 wine made in Sussex accounted for about a quarter of the total wine produced in England; with over 50 vineyards, Sussex produces more wine than any other county in the UK. In 2016 Sussex wine was granted protected regional status by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). DEFRA has also applied to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

for Protected Designation of Origin status in the European Union's

Geographic Indication A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g., a town, region, or country). The use of a geographical indication, as an indication of the product's source, ...

scheme. Sussex's

sparkling wine Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...

in particular has drawn comparisons with

Champagne Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, ...

and is sometimes rated as some of the best in the world.

History

It is likely that wine has been produced in Sussex for around 2,000 years. It is likely that wine was produced either by the late

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

tribes such as the '' Belgae'' and ''

Regni The Regni, Regini, or Regnenses were a Tribe which occupied modern West Sussex, East Sussex, south-west Kent, eastern Surrey, and the eastern edges of Hampshire. Their Tribal centre was at Noviomagus_Reginorum (Chichester in West_Sussex), close ...

'' or by the Romans who governed what was to become Sussex. Vineyards in England produced significant amounts of wine in the 12th and early 13th centuries. However this came to an end in the 13th and 14th centuries as the Medieval Warm Period began to end, the Black Death reduced the workforce and wine was increasingly imported from Gascony. By 1275 the vineyard at

Battle Abbey Battle Abbey is a partially ruined Benedictine abbey in Battle, East Sussex, England. The abbey was built on the site of the Battle of Hastings and dedicated to St Martin of Tours. It is a Scheduled Monument. The Grade I listed site is now ...

had ceased grape production. The Bolney wine estate was established at

Bolney Bolney is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. It lies south of London, north of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester, near the junction of the A23 road with the A272 road. ...

near Haywards Heath in 1972 by Janet and Rodney Pratt, and was one of the first commercial vineyards in England. There are numerous other vineyards throughout the county on various soils ranging from chalky soils such as Rathfinny in Alfriston, to clay and silt over sandstone in the Rother Valley such as Oastbrook Estate in Bodiam. Peter Hall planted his vineyard at Breaky Bottom on the South Downs near Lewes in 1974 at a time when there were only a dozen or so growers in the whole country.

Plumpton College Plumpton College is a Further and Higher education college in Plumpton, East Sussex, England, with courses in a variety of land based and related subjects. The college provides a range of full-time and part-time land-based courses, FE courses to ...

is the UK's specialist centre for wine research and training. Its purpose-built wine centre opened in 2014. It is the only establishment in Europe to offer undergraduate degrees in Wine Business and Production taught in the English language.

Geography and climate

The region has a warm climate and soil types similar to the Champagne district, which lies on the 49th parallel north, while the

Sussex Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...

lies on the

51st parallel north The 51st parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 51 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. At this latitude the sun is visible for 16 hours, 33 ...

.One vineyard, Oastbrook sits exactly on the parallel, Sussex has many south-facing slopes, which are suitable for growing the grape varieties found in sparkling wine, such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

Climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

has also impacted the climate of Sussex. According to the

Meteorological Office The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope ...

, 14 out of the 15 warmest summers on record have been in the 21st century. This means that what winemakers can grow in Sussex has changed. In addition, the cooler evenings and cool evening sea breezes in Sussex allow the grapes to develop high levels of natural acidity when fully ripe – crucial for sparkling wine and allowing harvesting to take place in October.

Viticulture and grapes

Oastbrook Estate near

Bodiam Bodiam () is a small village and civil parish in the Rother District of East Sussex, England. It lies in the valley of the River Rother, near to the villages of Sandhurst and Ewhurst Green. The MP of the local UK Parliament constituency is Hu ...

grows Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay,

Pinot Gris Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio (, ) or Grauburgunder is a white wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot Noir variety, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name, but the gra ...

and

Pinot Blanc Pinot blanc is a white wine grape. It is a point genetic mutation of Pinot noir. Pinot noir is genetically unstable and will occasionally experience a point mutation in which a vine bears all black fruit except for one cane which produces white ...

grapes on its south-facing slopes. In the 20th century the cooler climate had restricted the varieties of grape that could grow in Sussex to a range of Germanic varieties.

Winemaking and styles

Classification

The application for PDO status is the second in the UK after the Camel Valley in Cornwall was submitted in 2012. Sussex is the first major wine area in the UK to apply. An application for PDO status was submitted to the European Union in 2016. Formal certification could take several years to be agreed by the European Commission. Until the process is ratified by the EU, Sussex wine has temporary protected status in the UK. Since protected status was given to Sussex wines in 2016, wine producers must meet stringent quality guidelines in order to display the name of the county on their wines. The first wine to be produced under the Sussex PDO scheme was approved in 2016 for Rathfinny estate. PDO status means that all wines using the name 'Sussex wine' have to be produced in Sussex from grapes grown in Sussex. The idea came from Jamie Everett, chief operating officer of the Rathfinny estate, one of England's newest vineyards. The consortium, which includes the larger and older vineyards Ridgeview and Bolney estates, has the backing of the UK government. At least half the vineyards have supported the bid to give protected status to wine made from grapes grown in Sussex.

Wineries

Sussex boasts the largest and most densely planted cluster of vineyards (23 in total) in the UK. In 2016 wine made in East and West Sussex accounted for about a quarter of the total produced in England.

Bibliography

References

External links

Sussex Wineries website
{{Sussex British wine br>Oastbrook