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.

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. 

A weekend in Tenby

A wet November is the perfect time to look back at our holiday in Wesst Wales, although earky October it wasn't sunny when we arrived,, in fact it was a very stormy, with dy day. 

We have been to Tenby many years ago, before we were married and again when our children were young on a holiday with my Dad, so it was great to revisit. Tenby is a walled town, the medieval walls are Grade I listed and were built in the late 1200s by Llewelyn ap Gruffyydd to protect the town.

There are four gates giving access to the town and taxes charged helped maintain this impressive and important structure. The taxes provided enough income to also build a five arched entrance at the West Gate. In the late 1500s the walls were repaired with the lower sections strengthened, the walls raised by five feet and a parapet walkway added.

In the late 1700s there was less need for defences and much of the wall was dismantled leaving just the West Gate. The walls are now protected and the five way arch is an impressive entrance to the lively town that has a variety of small independent shops as well as some high street stores. 

 

Tenby has an outcrop of rock which geographically helps provide Tenby's harbour and was the perfect location for Tenby Castle. All that remains of the 12th century fortification is a tower; it's quite an exposed position with great views, the perfect position to protect the town.

In the middle of Tenby is the Merchant House, now a National Trust property this house and it's inhabitants played a key part in the  town's trading with the harbour bringing goods from all around the world. Now surrounded by other properties when built the house would have been dominant in the skyline and clearly visable from incoming boats, and with the house having a perfect view of the harbour the merchants knew exactly when a ship arrived.

Tenby is full of history and evidence of how the town has changed over centuries. There was a super Victorian post box, a rare sight and made me think about how many postcards have been sent via this red box over the decades it has stood here.

Castle Hill outcrop is also the location of Tenby RNLI's new lifeboat station, the old station is still there too. Tenby is in the far West of Wales on the Pembrokeshire peninsula and on the north coast of the Bristol Channel with Cornwall to the south. The RNLI station's location is vital for providing sea rescue on this busy channel as it leads out to the Atlantic Ocean. 

Our second day was much brighter and certainly less windy. We had previously walked into Tenby via the road but with the tide being out we enjoyed a Sunday morning stroll along the beach into the town and then along the harbour.

There are plenty of bars and restaurants in Tenby, it's a popular place for stag and hen weekends. We visited Harbwr Brewery which is located near the Merchant House. It had stopped raining and with the brewery being in one of the old alleyways it was sheltered enough to enjoy a drink outside.

We also visited Tap and Tan, this was our favourite brewery who do have a Tap Room next to the caravan site but unfortunately closed the weekend before we arrived for the winter season. There is a Tap and Tan pub restaurant in the food quarter in the town and is where we enjoyed a flight of beer, also outside as it was still dry and in a sheltered courtyard. 

Our other Tenby experience was a pot of prawns fresh from the fishmonger by the harbour. They were so fresh and far tastier than the prawns we buy in stores at home.

We had a great stay in Tenby, very different weather as you can see from our Saturday v Sunday photo. It is a place we would visit again but being the far West of Wales it's a long journey from home, however we can always have a stopover at our daughter's on the way. 

Our Welsh journeys

It was quite a journey from home to West Wales sop it was lovely to breakfast our journey with an overnight stay at our daughter and son-in-law's in South Waales. Our journey took us through the lower part of the Brecon Beacons, beautiful scenery including this waterfall at the roadside.

We haven't driven the Brecon to Llandovery road before, it was beautiful. Our reason for taking this route was to visit Dinefwr, a National Trust property near Llandeilo. 

For over 2000 years this area of Wales has been important for many reasons; an Iron Age hillfort, a Roman military fort, a monastery at St Teilo's and part of the Bishop of St David's estate.

In the 1100s Dinefwr Castle was part of the kingdom of Deheubarth; The Lord Rhys fought against the Norman Conquest. In Tudor times the first mansion on the site was built by Sir Rhys ap Thomas who fought along side Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth. Newton House, named this as it was the new town built by the English, became the home of the Lord Dynevors who were significant families in South Wales. 

After hundreds of years being passed down through the family the huge park became owned by the National Trust in the late 1980s and Newton House a few years later. Dinefwr Castle is a ruined castle which stands high above the house, it is owned and looked after by Cadw. 

Because of time and the very wet weather we only visited the house which was very interesting although the furniture was not original to the property, only the blue clock belonged to the family.

  

After a super weekend in Tenby we journeyed on to New Quay on the west coast of Wales. Our journey took us through Narbeth where we had a coffee stop along side the river, it was so peaceful.

Narbeth castle is also now a ruin with the history of being the place where the last dragon in Wales was killed. There was a very impressive dragon above the gateway.

We had a lovely time exploring the west of Wales including a trip to Cardigan where there was a cardigan hanging in the market hall. It was made by local people in 2010 with support from the Heritage Fund. 

 

We had a great time travelling through Wales as well as our two short breaks: Tenby and West Quay. I'll be blogging about our times in each location soon.