Sugar Loaf Vineyard

We're huge fans and supporters of White Castle Wine who have a vineyard just north east of Abergavenny. 

It's named after the local castle which is one of three Monmouthshire fortress originally wooden forts, the other two castles are Grosmobt and Skenfrith. The castles were owned by Edward I in the mid 1200s, now all ruins they are owned by Cadw.

We have visited the vineyard but haven't been to the castle. That scenario was repeated on our last holiday in Wales, we haven't climbed the mountain but we did visit Sugar Loaf Vineyard located north west of Abergavenny.

As well as a wine shop the vineyard has a beautiful cafe with a large balcony terrace overlooking the vines.

It was superb to sit and enjoy the countryside with a cuppa and teacake. I always find it peaceful to be amongst vines and felt very relaxed sitting on the terrace.

Sugar Loaf Vineyard's first vines were planted in 1992, there are now over 5000 vines over 5 acres growing 7 grape varieties. The vineyard offers self guided tours and tastings but because it was one of this year's hot days we decided on just a tasting, one flight to share as Hubby was driving. Something I would certainly recommend especially as it was just £6 for the flight of four wines.

From left to right the wines were: 

Calon Lan 2025 - a crisp white made from Reichensteiner, a grape from the Riesling family. Full of apples flavours there is a similarity to Sauvignon Blanc

Y Fenni 2025 - an aromatic white with floral notes. This wine made from Solaris, Sirrus and Seyval Blanc has flavours of lemon and elderflower.

Sugarloaf Blush 2025 - four grapes make this light rosé, Regent, Rondo, Triomphe d'Alsace and Seyval Blanc. It has a beautiful colour linking superbly to it's summer fruit flavours.

Deri Coch 2025 - made from Regent and Rondo it's one of very few Welsh red wines. A light bodied red with plenty of berry flavours.

We enjoyed all four wines, they would all certainly pair well with the delicious choice of food on the menu. My preference was Calon Lan, a bottle of which is now in our cellar.

The Sugar Loaf Vineyard shop also sells wine gifts and lovely products from The Sugar Loaf Soap Company. It's a great place for a trip out and somewhere we'll visit again although we may need to book a table as it does get busy.

Greys Court

On a recent trip to an overnight stay in Reading we made use of our National Trust membership and visited Greys Court. It isn't somewhere I'd heard of and I still don't fully understand its history but it was a beautiful place.

It was recorded in the 1086 Domesday book as Redrefeld, an area that covers Greys Court and Rotherfield Greys, the nearby village.

There's lots of history linking the area to the Court of kings over many decades but the original fortification and Tower were constructed in the 1300s, part of which are evident today. 

From the early 1400s the house passed through many families and generations starting with the Lovells. Although they repaired much of the property the family estate was seized by King Henry VII and eventually passed to tge Knollys family in the 1500s as Sir Francis Knollys held a senior position in Queen Elizabth I's court.

It was Sir Francis who developed and extended the house, it was passed to his nephew Robert and subsequently damaged in the Civil War as he died with King Charles I.

Through marriage the house then passed to the Stapleton family who made their fortune in the Caribbean owning several sugar plantations which were worked by slaves.

Sir William Stapleton, 4th Baronet, resided at Greys Court but despite his mother giving him money from her Caribbean estates and inheriting money from his father he amounted many debts and did little to upkeep the house.

His son, and later grandson, did work on the house, adding the Dairy, bow windows and internal plaster decorations.

In 1934 the house was bought by Evelyn Fleming who renovated much of the house. Her children, one of her sons was Ian Femming who wrote the James Bond novels, did not like the house and so it was sold to the Brunner family and the house became a family home. 

The house and estate were given to the National Trust in 1969 but the family lived there until their deaths, Felix in 1982 and Elizabeth in 2003.  

All the rooms had familiar furniture and decor, reminding us both of our grandparents and things they had. There was nothing overly old or special inside the house but it was very interesting to look around.

The gardens were lovely, many different areas that each had a focus. The estate is over 75 hectares with two marked walks but a too hot day for us to go walking. 

Just outside the house overlooking the beautiful lawn was a very striking tree with cocoa coloured branches and bright leaves. I have never seen this tree before and have discovered it is a hybrid strawberry tree (Arbutus andrachnoides). It is known for its peeling bark and strawberry-like fruit although we didn't see any fruit.

The gardens were beautiful if showing signs of the heatwave, I imagine they have suffered more as the high temperatures have continued. One garden lead to another, each with a different feature plant. The gardens have developed over the life of the estate with some dating back to the Lovells.

Greys Court was a lovely place to visit and a great stop over if traveling south. It has a good cafe, National Trust shop and a good picnic area by the car park. We had a lovely time exploring the house and walking through the beautiful gardens.

Homemade wine

If you are a regular reader of my blog, thank you, you'll have seen I've started making wine again. If you missed my previous posts here's the links: 

Homemade Apple Wine 

Homemade Plum Wine

After months of settling in the demijohns I decided yesterday to bottle my wine. I have already filled bottles from one the apple demijohn which have been very much enjoyed by the apple donator!

I was a little concerned about the plum wine as there was a yeasty under taste so I added some finings... this is not something I usually do as my wine is just fruit and sugar. I added finings to one demijohn of plum and one of apple. 

I don't think it has done anything to the apple but the plum does seem smoother although the demijohn of plum without the finings is less yeasty after having longer in the demijohn. 

It's very satisfying making wine - turning these 

into beautiful clear and delicious wine 

Now I'm making Rhubarb wine, kindly donated by the apple grower hopefully this will be as successful. I haven't made apple or plum wine before but in the late 1980s when we first moved into our house and before our children were born I made some Rhubarb wine which was superb. 

It's settling well and no longer bubbling so today I will rack (syphon) it into clean demijohns and leave it to settle more. I will not be adding finings to this wine.

I'd really like to try making pea pod wine, something my Grandad made and it's his book I use. It's very old and falling apart but the recipes are great, I'd also like to try beetroot wine but I need a dark glass demijohn for that as the light can change it's colour. I might also try making dandelion wine again but it needs a lot of flowers and it's a bit smelly to make as they need boiling. 

If any of my local friends have spare fruit of veg I'd love to try making them into wine or donate them to Pressed for Good, a local social enterprise using unwanted fruit and vegetables to make cider with profits going to good causes.

One thing I need to do is get some good labels. I have searched online but as yet haven't found quite what I'm looking for. I might buy some larger labels and have a go at designing my own, printing might be the tricky bit getting the sizes right ... there's a challenge! 

Canalside Holiday

We recently enjoyed a week in Wales near Abergavenny in the lovely Canalside Cottage, one of two converted pig stys. Our daughter and son-in-law live in the area so as well as a holiday we spent time with them and our beautiful granddaughter.

The cottage was in a hamlet of about six houses and as its name suggests was right by the canal. With views across the canal to the mountains it was so peaceful, we loved sitting out late evening watching the bats (who flew very close) and amazingly an owl.

The cottage was lovely, stone flag flooring throughout with an open plan kitchen lounge diner, a four poster double, a twin room and a huge bathroom with rain forest style shower. It was very nice to live without stairs for a week.

We had a couple of country walks although the second half of our week was a bit too warm for walking. I was nervous walking the country lanes and much preferred walking the canal towpath even if it was further as canals are not straight.

As holiday are food and drink is always a highlight. Our first walk took us to The Horseshoe Inn, a bit uphill but sitting outside the views were lovely; a view that changed over our week.

We recently enjoyed watching Death Valley which is filmed in South Wales so one of our days out included a coffee at Brod in Penarth, one of the tv series' filming locations. The coffee was superb, so was my Marmite & cheese danish, Hubby enjoyed his custard one too.

As I mentioned the view over the mountain changed over the week as a huge wildfire started on Sunday near Cwmavon and Blaenavon which lies just the other side. It's times like this that social media shows its positive side with updates posted from South Wales Fire and also the local community posting about how to help and support the Firefighters and other emergency services with food and drink donations as they worked day and night out on the mountain.

The smoke varied depending on the wind direction and time of day as the evenings brought more smoke with the drop in temperature. The sunset was over the mountain which made the sky red, at first we worried it was the flames but thankfully not.

As far as I know the fire is now under control but has destroyed over 200 hectares, thankfully no-one was hurt.

We had a super week in the Welsh countryside and spending time with our now 3 generation family. 

Cosford Air Museum

A few weeks ago we took a drive to the Royal Airforce Cosford Air Museum. Whilst I'm not keen on flying (taking off and landing) we do fly a few times a year and I'm always using Flightradar24 to see what's flying overhead.

I'm quite good at recognising the sound of different planes especially as a Hercules or an Antonov go by.

Cosford is huge, there's two large hangers dedicated to WWI and WWII planes. I cannot believe they flew in them, some are just wood and paper. There is also a enormous new purpose built hanger with planes and fighter jets, including a Vulcan. 

It's free to visit, just parking to pay with a discount if you pay online in advance. It's a great place to visit with good facilities and coffee shop.

Hercules

VC10

Nimrod

Catalina Flying Boat

Bristol

Gloster Gladiator 

Spitfire

Tiger Moth

Mosquito 

Avro Lincoln

F111

Lightning 

Vulcan and Hawker Hunter

Huge thank you to my Hubby for a great day out and being my aeroplane encyclopedia.