English wines and beers from Sandhurst Vineyards and Hop Farms

Three generations of the Nicholas family work to create wonderful wines and beers at Sandhurst, a village on the A268 between Hawkhurst and Rye.

Anne Nicholas owns two farms in Sandhurst, her son Nicholas manages them, and his two sons work on them.

They have 36 acres of vines and 131 acres of hops.

The family grow Pinot Noir, Regent, Rondo and Dornfelder for their red wines and Chardonay, Pinot Blanc, Bacchus, Reichensteiner and Schonbuger for their whites.

Grapes are sent to Chapel Down Winery at Tenterden for processing.

Their own wines include a 2003 Sandhurst Brut Vintage, a 2009 Bacchus Medium White, a 2009 Sandhurst Estate Red and a 2010 Sandhurst Dry Rose.

Dry Rose is a wonderfully refreshing on its own – clean tasting with a berry fruit aroma.

Then there are the three unique and distinctive Sandhurst beers: Tradition, Legend and Epic.

Tradition celebrates the history of hop farming in Sandhurst – the Nicholas family are the last hop growers in a parish that once boasted 70,000 acres of the crop that gives beer its bitterness, and 30 oast houses for drying them.

Legend has a ghost story behind it’s name, and a joke played on the East Enders who came each September to pick the hops as a back-breaking but fresh-air respite from the grind of their usual lives in The Smoke.

Epic is an unusual blend of three hops including one found growing wild in a hedgerow at Bourne Farm in Sandhurst.

You can buy direct from the family at Hoads Farm, Crouch Lane, Sandhurst, Cranbrook Kent. Look out for the sign off the A268 south of Hawkhurst, or tap TN18 5PA into your sat nav.  Their website is at www.sandhurstvineyards.co.uk