Searcys Visits the Greyfriars Vineyard

We love English sparkling wine and this October, as part of our Harvest celebrations, we went to visit one of our English sparkling wine producers, Greyfriars, in Surrey.

English sparkling wine has grown in both popularity and quality over the last couple of years and the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) project that production will double by 2022 to approximately 10 million bottles annually. This year, we have been focusing on bringing English sparkling wine to our customers across our restaurants, cafés and venues and we now stock three producers: Greyfriars, Furleigh and Nyetimber.

The team of Searcys bartenders, restaurant managers and sales and marketing managers travelled to the Greyfriars vineyard and were met by Mike. Mike and Hilary Wagstaff have been at the helm of Greyfriars since 2010 when they took over with the aim of expanding Greyfriars to become a boutique producer of world-class sparkling wines. The Greyfriars’ team harvest and press their grapes on-site over a sixteen-day period and we went to visit a couple of days in to help harvest their grapes. Following a safety briefing from David, Greyfriars’ Vineyard Manager, about how to pick grapes using very sharp tools without losing any fingers, all twelve of us were let loose in the vineyard. Luckily, for the first day in their harvest so far, the sun shone down on the chalk slopes of the Hog’s Back and over two-and-a-half hours we picked 1.6 tonnes of grapes.

Following this, Mike showed us around the vineyard, including the chalk cave which they built in 2017 which is naturally temperature controlled to store and age their wine. The day would not have been complete without a glass or two of Greyfriars sparkling wine. We tasted wines included the Greyfriars Blanc de Noirs NV which has notes of honeyed apples and a slight taste of brioche and the Classic Cuvée, which has layers of citrusy notes and a mineral finish.

Want to try it for yourself? Come and visit one of our restaurants or cafes including St Pancras Brasserie and Champagne Bar, The Tearoom at St Pauls and Searcys at The Gherkin. View Searcys Bars and Restaurants