FREE Thirsty Thursday Tasting - Sugrue South Downs, with James Doidge MW

I used to think that the trouble with dreams was when you get the one where your teeth fall out, or the one when you're naked in a public place. But I was wrong: The Trouble With Dreams is one of this country's premier sparkling wines. It's unmistakeably English in its citrus-and-green-apple drive, but also possessed of an unusual concentration and depth. Salted butter sits alongside lemon meringue pie. The Trouble With Dreams is the realised vision of Dermot Sugrue, and the distinctive name is a nod to all the many hardships he surpassed on the way - most notably, birds devouring all his grapes off the vine in 2008.

Dermot was already head winemaker at Nyetimber when the monks of Storrington Priory invited him to plant and nurture a vineyard on their land. Seeing the potential of the South Downs site, Dermot agreed, on condition he could keep a portion of the grapes for a wine of his own. That became The Trouble With Dreams. The delicious appeal of his early vintages proved the quality of the site. But then the cold, wet, dark summer of 2012 became another of those Troubles, and Dermot realised he needed complementary sources of fruit. Two more South Downs sites soon joined Storrington Priory: Mount Harry, near Plumpton, and the beautiful amphitheatre vineyard of Coldharbour, near Pulborough.

The 2022 vintage of The Trouble With Dreams is a blend of fruit from all three sites, and 60% Chardonnay to 40% Pinot Noir. 2022 was the hottest year on record (at the time!) but with Dermot’s vines already averaging 17 years of age, they were deep-rooted enough to access water through the drought. That led to fruit that was both ripe and balanced. The wine was made in a mix of 500- and 600-litre barrels as, in Dermot’s words, 'big barrels give finesse to sparkling wine', and spent 4 years on the lees before disgorgement. It's releases like this that have led to Sugrue South Downs being named Wine GB Boutique Producer of the Year in all of 2020, 2021 and 2023. /NT