Hidden Treasures at Kingscote Wine Estate
Tucked away down a remote country track near East Grinstead is the beautiful Kingscote Wine Estate. The Estate is a jewel in the valley, just a 10 minute car ride from the Bluebell Railway at Kingscote Station, where you can get the steam train down from East Grinstead then have a country walk out to the Estate.
Spanning 150 acres the Kingscote Estate is an English wine producer as well as an idyllic venue for weddings, corporate events and private parties, boasting vineyards, apple orchards and a winery producing Kingscote wines and cyder.
Arriving at Kingscote Wine Estate I really wondered where I was going as it so so beautifully remote.
The Estate shop stocks a variety of Kingscote products, alongside English and Sussex sparkling wines. Vineyard tours combined with lunch or afternoon tea can be enjoyed. And for the sporting visitors, clay pigeon shooting and fishing are just some of the activities on offer.
Kingscote Estate was founded by Christen Monge, who sadly passed away in May 2015. This former 'ad man' who was the creative brain behind the launch of Fosters in the UK and those famously iconic Guinness adverts, wanted to bring this experience to creating a premium brand sparkling wine - as part of making Kingscote Estate a tourism destination.
The main focus of my visit was to view the beautiful Tithe Barn, which recently opened as a cookery school which is overseen and run by Jethro Carr. Jethro showed me around the fantastic space, which is not only ideally suited to cookery classes and demonstrations but also weddings, parties, private dinners, exhibitions and corporate events.
Jethro works alongside other local chefs, offering a range of cookery classes,which includes Family Days for the whole family to cook together.
The cookery school kitchen is well equipped, with flexible cookery stations for large groups; largest class to date was for 35. Everything is portable in the way of prep trolleys and induction hobs for even more flexibility. Magimix have provided all the food processors, fryers and ice cream makers - and I enjoyed admiring all the Rangemaster ovens and Clive Christian's professional touches.
The barn is more than able to seat up to 120 for large events and outside there is a beautiful area to sit and admire the view, close enough for large groups to dine al fresco.
I could hardly visit this impressive Estate without tasting a few of the Kingscote wine. A personal favourite was Fat Fume, 2014 - a unique and delicious lightly-oaked English Bacchus.
The big surprise of the day was the cyder; a cool, sparkling drink that I mistakenly believed was a sparkling wine. It is made in the same way as champagne, with the same method of fermentation over nine months. I am looking forward to sharing the bottle I brought home!
A Kingscote Sparkling Wine will be launching in July, as it was being bottled during my visit - so I look forward to enjoying this as the summer hits a high.
The wine shop is open every day 9:30am to 5:30pm and more details on the estate can be found at www.kingscoteestate.com