Family-run vineyard and winery Downsview is tucked away in Crowborough in the Kent and Sussex Weald and recently started collaborating with local producers and chefs to create a unique eating and drinking destination for food and wine lovers, offering fine dining amongst the vineyard’s vines, afternoon picnics in the warm summer sunshine and Friday and Saturday pizza and fizz evenings to both locals and the wider community.
Downsview was taken over four years ago by husband and wife team Toby and Katy Spiers, who have transformed the space with a cosy tasting room for those colder evenings and an outdoor kitchen and seating area where you can enjoy a relaxed setting on those warmer spring and summer evenings.
Toby and Katy are passionate about growing grapes that are of exceptional quality so they can produce some truly delicious Sussex wines. Downsview grows six grape varieties. The whites are Bacchus, Chardonnay and Ortega and the reds are Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Dornfelder. All the wines are produced in the onsite winery and quite often the grapes are crushed directly in the vineyard to ensure their freshness and vibrancy.
Since taking over Downsview, Toby and Katy have become custodians of rare, old vine vineyards in the local area that were planted over 35 years ago. They launched a new Downsview Vineyards Old Vine Collection in June that features a ‘Museum Release Late Disgorged 2006’, a ‘Sparkling NV’ and an ‘Old Vine White 2022’.
Toby is in charge of making the wines and has opened up the winery every weekend for tastings, vineyard tours and cellar door sales.
This year a new summer dining programme has been created in collaboration with local chef Aaron Fitzgerald where guests enjoy a fantastic meal with seasonal produce paired with the vineyard’s very own wines as well other wines from around the world whilst sitting among the vines of this beautiful two-acre East Sussex vineyard. For example, you can enjoy a feast of meat with earthy new and old-world reds or an Asian inspired menu. The seasonal 5-course tasting lunches are designed to be lingered over on a warm sunny day, and to give you an example, might consist of The Gardener’s Plate followed by Quackettes with Fig Jam, a Miso Tuna Tartare, a Venison, Plum and Cobnut Salad and rounded off with Pear and Blackberries. On the other hand, the supper club evenings offer a truly memorable and distinctive dining experience.
If, however, you are looking for a more casual get together, then Downsview is open every Friday and Saturday afternoon and evening for pizza cooked al fresco from the vineyard’s very own pizza oven, accompanied by a selection of home-produced wines and ciders as well as locally brewed beer. Alternatively, you can simply drop in and try some wine with a charcuterie board and tasting flight.
The cosy tasting room above the winery has a bar and log burner, where you can enjoy a glass of red wine or enjoy one of the supper club evenings. The recently added outdoor kitchen and seating area makes for an idyllic laid back spring and summer day in the vineyard.
The Details
Downsview Vineyard, Hadlow Down Road, Crowborough, East Sussex, TN6 3RG, England.
Located on the edge of Ashdown Forest, Downsview is a short distance from Crowborough, in between Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead and Lewes in the heart of Weald. There are direct trains from London Bridge to Crowborough Station.
The vineyard’s Supper Clubs are priced from £45 per person. For more information on Downsview Vineyard and how to book a visit, be it for a tour, tasting or dinner, please visit: www.downsviewvineyard.co.uk.
Simon Burrell is Editor of Our Man On The Ground, a former member of The British Guild of Travel Writers and professional photographer.
Photographs courtesy of Downsview Vineyard
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