Wine Dinner: Sugrue South Downs x Bohemia 25.05

Hello!

Right now, the wine world is witnessing the birth of a new region... England. Of course vines have been planted and wines made in Sussex, Essex and further afield for decades, but over the last few years the industry has gone from eccentrics making oddball wines from Huxelrebe and Madeleine Angevine to serious winemakers creating equally serious wine. Dermot and Ana Sugrue are leading that charge.

Very few of us have had the chance to try truly great English wines, but they are here now and what better way to experience them than with Dermot himself in the luxurious setting of the Michelin starred Bohemia on Thursday 25th May.

Over five paired courses you will taste through five of Sugrue's genre defining cuvées whilst Dermot regales you with tales of the wines and his experience in changing the face of English wine.

To reserve your place, please email events@theclubjersey.com call Bohemia directly on 01534 880 588.

Scroll down to learn a bit more about Sugrue South Downs and view the menu.

Cheers,

Kit & The Love Wine Team

About Dermot & Ana Sugrue

Born in Ireland in 1974, Dermot Sugrue made his first wine at just 16 years old. After moving to the UK in 1992, Dermot pursued his interest in studying environmental sciences, obtaining his honours degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia, which is a leading centre for climatic research, in 1996.

Having always been an environmentalist Dermot realised that the marginal change in temperature was having a profound effect on the ability to ripen grapes in the UK; a realisation which really came to the fore when he moved to Sussex and realised the potential of what was going on.

When the opportunity to leave his previous career as an Independent Financial Advisor arose Dermot decided to pursue his teenage dream of becoming a winemaker. While he looked at courses in Australia, Dermot, who was by then working at a winery in Suffolk, discovered that Plumpton College was offering a course in viticulture and oenology.

Following vintages in the UK he completed two seasons working in Bordeaux, at Chateau l’Eglise-Clinet, Pomerol and Chateau Leoville-Barton, St Julien, before returning to the UK in 2002 to help establish a contract winery in Suffolk.

In 2003 Dermot joined Nyetimber as assistant winemaker, becoming the head winemaker just one year later and going on to oversee Nyetimber’s emergence as one of the world’s greatest sparkling wine producers.

In 2006 Dermot met Harry and Pip Goring, owners of Wiston Estate in West Sussex, to talk about the possibility of starting a new English vineyard and winery project. After working the 2006 vintage in Champagne for Jacquinot & Fils, he returned to the UK to begin his journey at Wiston, helping to plant the vineyard and renovate the winery in 2008 in time for the first harvest.

That same year Sugrue also planted the “Trouble With Dreams” vineyard at Storrington Priory, with wines released under the Sugrue South Downs label some years later. The 2010 vintage of ‘The Trouble With Dreams’, was awarded the highest ever score by Decanter Magazine for an English Sparkling Wine, and by 2020 Sugrue South Downs was rated as the finest producer of English Sparkling Wine by Hugh Johnson OBE – the world’s best-selling and most respected international wine author - in his annual guide.

In 2022, after 16 years at the helm at Wiston Estate, Sugrue left to focus on his own brand, together wife his wife Ana who has broad experience of making wine in South America, New Zealand, California, Germany, Austria and the UK. Ana was formerly the Winemaking Lecturer at Plumpton College in Sussex, which offers Degree and Masters courses in viticulture and winemaking.

The Menu