Sugrue South Downs - The Trouble with Dreams 2019

Sugrue South Downs

The Trouble with Dreams

2019

75cl

Brut

Classic English method / English Sparkling Wine

VARIETY: 60% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir

VINEYARDS: 50% Mount Harry Vineyard, East Sussex, planted in 2006 on clay soil, approx. 70 m above sea level. 30% Coldharbour vineyard, West Sussex, planted in 2005 on clay with flints over chalk, approximately 65m above sea level. 20% Storrington Priory Vineyard , West Sussex, planted in 2006 on sandy soil over chalk and greensand, 50m above sea level.

HARVEST: Good yield thanks to the absence of spring frosts and healthy flowering, average yield in all vineyards above 6,000 kg/ha; 7,500 bottles produced

VINIFICATION: 50% in 500 liter Burgundy barrels of various ages, 50% fermented in stainless steel, with partial MLF

MATURATION: Bottled in July 2020 and first disgorgement in January 2024 at 6g/L, after 3.5 years on the lees

ANALYSIS: Residual sugar: 6g/L. 12% vol

Wine is emotion. And every release of "The Trouble With Dreams" is exciting.

11 years after what should have been the inaugural vintage of The Trouble With Dreams from the vineyard Dermot initially planted to produce wine for the monastic order of Catholic priests at Storrington Priory, the 2019 vintage marks a significant new development of which we couldn't be happier. While hopes for the 2008 vintage were dashed when virtually all the grapes were devoured overnight by birds ("that's the problem with dreams", objected Prior Father Paul McMahon...) exactly 10 miles away west of Storrington a larger vineyard of older vines on extremely calcareous soil were preparing for their second harvest in an exceptional terroir... Coldharbour Vineyard. We have been using brilliant fruit from Coldharbour since 2015 for our Cuvée Boz Blanc de Blancs, in 2018 for our Rose Ex Machina, and this 2019 release of The Trouble With Dreams is the first time Coldharbour fruit has been featured here, making up the 30% of the mixture. Since 2019, Coldharbour fruit has been featured in all our vintages and since 2023 we have managed the site directly.

Around ten years ago the first vintages of 'Trouble with Dreams' went on sale: the 2009, 2010 and 2011, quickly gaining critical acclaim and widely proclaimed as the best sparkling wines in the UK. Each subsequent vintage has had big shoes to fill, and we're pleased to say that the 2019 'Trouble' is perfect, more precise and exciting than ever, with the mineral geology at its core and the complex yeast fruit providing a dazzling tapered finish . It shows all the qualities of the fruit harvested at the peak of ripeness possible before the horrible rains that began after October 12 of that year. The initial version of this wine was disgorged in early January 2024, with a dosage of just 6 g/l, only 7,500 bottles of this historic wine were produced.

History

It was a divine inspiration that led to this exceptional wine. One day the monastic order of Catholic priests at the Priory of Our Lady of England in Storrington, West Sussex, realized that the land they had at their disposal might have the potential for planting vines. Father Paul McMahon approached Dermot with a proposal to plant and cultivate a small vineyard at the foot of the South Downs and produce wine for the priests. Dermot, still looking to the future, spoke to Father McMahon and told him that he would like to plant a vineyard and make wine for the priests, and perhaps in return he could take a percentage of the grapes to make his own wine. The delighted Father McMahon immediately agreed.

The grapes were such a success that the birds flying over the vineyard devoured them all, thus putting an end to hopes of a 2008 harvest. All their dreams, at least at that point, seemed to be, literally, far away from birds. “That's the problem with dreams,” objected Father McMahon, but undeterred and seeing the great potential of making wine from a single vineyard, Dermot continued.

The first release from the Sugrue South Downs was a 2009 vintage. The grape, now greedy and protected from birds, was another great success. The priest's statement, however, had always stuck with Dermot, and when the first bottles of wine were produced, they took their name from Father McMahon's silent reflection. The 2009 vintage of "The Trouble with Dreams" went on sale in 2013 and quickly gained critical acclaim.

Review

The Trouble With Dreams 2019 - 17.5++ / 20 points, Tamlyn Currin

"The smoky, marine-scented aromas, like rain on windswept coastal cliffs, have goosebumps tingling down my neck before I've even sipped the wine. So racy it takes your breath away. White-knuckle tension, white-shell minerality, white stone fruit and long, sweet pithy tannins. Power in structure: salt-crusted verticality, a whisper of honey across the endless breadth in the wine that it feels like it might snap in your mouth; 't chill it as much as you might champagne and, if you can, allow it to open in the glass I've been tasting a very large number of top-notch grower champagnes recently and by comparing the Sugrue wines, every bit as. good, are underpriced (for which read Very Good Value)."

Tamlyn Currin, May 2024, www.jancisrobinson.com