The Suss-Ex Club

Visit to Ridgeview

Here are photos of the Suss-Ex visit to the Ridgeview vineyard and winery, Ditchling, on 12th August 2014.

Outside we saw a vast array of perfectly planted vines, principally Chardonnay, to make sparkling wine by the méthode traditionnelle.
Inside, a technopolis of modern machinery; the bottling machine was most impressive. In the traditional champagne process, the inverted bottle neck is quick-frozen followed by a rapid opening, removing, filling and resealing operation. These machines process 1000s of bottles per hour!
Christopher Merret was an Englishman who presented a paper to the Royal Society in 1662 documenting the process of making traditional method sparkling wines. This was 30 years before the technique was documented in the region of Champagne.
The final product.

Formalities

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