Dermot Sugrue’s bold next step in English winemaking

It’s lucky that Irish-born Dermot Sugrue thrives on stress. The past few years have been a whirlwind for the supremely talented, Sussex-based winemaker, who has 20 years of experience under his belt with a raft of well-known English winery names.

In that time he has left Wiston Estate, where he worked for 16 years, moved house, got married, had a baby, and then – with investment from Robin Hutson, owner of The Pig hotel group, and actor Hugh Bonneville – built a new winery for the wines he makes under his own Sugrue South Downs label, from several sites his team manage in East and West Sussex.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for Dermot Sugrue’s sparkling wines

Taking shape

The winery is next to his new Bee Tree Vineyard. Building work was supposed to be finished by last summer, in time to receive the 2023 harvest, but work overran and he ended up having to process 146 tonnes of fruit while work was ongoing.

Today the winery is fully equipped and attention has turned to the exterior, and landscaping. It’s a facility for primary winemaking only – to receive, press and ferment grapes, and age in oak; the barrel hall sits on a mezzanine level above the tanks below.

Sugrue has invested in some second-use (600-litre) demi-muids from Burgundy, as well as younger 500-litre barrels. Bottling takes place on a mobile bottling line, and he contracts out the riddling, storage and disgorgement of bottles, which takes place elsewhere under his supervision.

Sussex vineyards

Sugrue bought the 1.3 hectare Bee Tree Vineyard in May 2023. It was planted in 2015 with Pinot Noir (72%), Pinot Meunier (15%) and a small amount of Chardonnay and PIWI varieties.

But the remainder of the 11ha at his disposal he rents. This includes the original 1.4ha vineyard that he started out with; the Storrington Priory Vineyard, which he planted in 2006 on chalk and greensand soils; the Mount Harry Vineyard, 2ha planted on chalk, near Lewes; and (since 2022) the larger, 7.3ha Coldharbour Vineyard in West Sussex, planted in 2005 on clay and flint over chalk. ‘These are old vines for England,’ he points out.

His early winemaking days, in the 2000s, were crazy, working round the clock. The first vintage of his own sparkling wine (under the brand Sugrue Pierre back then) was ‘The Trouble with Dreams’ 2009.

This was made in his early days at Wiston, 1,000 bottles only, made with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Storrington Priory.

The 2010 vintage was awarded 96-points, rated Outstanding, at a Decanter panel tasting in 2014, and Sugrue still remembers receiving a phone call from the then tastings director Christelle Guibert, to break the news that he had received the highest score ever given to an English sparkling wine by Decanter.

When his subsequent vintage, the 2011 Trouble With Dreams, won the Regional Trophy for UK Sparkling Wine at the Decanter World Wine Awards in that same year, he knew he had a special vineyard on his hands.

New beginnings

Fast forward to today, and Sugrue has been named WineGB Boutique Producer of the Year three times in the last four years, and continues to consult for Digby and Ashling Park wineries, as well as making wines for Hutson’s Pig group of hotels.

Since 2021 he has been joined by his Croatian-born wife Ana, a winemaker and former lecturer in oenology at Plumpton College.

As well as The Trouble with Dreams, the pair make four other sparkling wines: ‘Rosé ex Machina’; ‘Cuvée Boz Blanc de Blancs’ (two cuvées from vineyards in different counties); ‘Zodo’, (one of Hugh Johnson’s favourite English wines); and the flagship label, ‘Dr Brendan O’Regan’, which is named after Sugrue’s great-uncle, who invented the world’s first duty-free shop, during his development of Dublin’s Shannon Airport.

A limited-edition run of 500 magnums of the flagship wine has just been released, and Sugrue is a big fan of the format. ‘You achieve a level of quality that is superior to that in a single bottle,’ he says.

The first still Sugrue South Downs wines will be released soon – first the white, a multi-vintage wine which has undergone some controlled oxidation: 85% Chardonnay with 15% Pinot Noir.

The red, still ageing, is a Pinot Noir sourced from Crouch Valley in Essex; samples tasted from barrel and aged in US and French oak, were outstanding.

Winemaking philosophy

Some describe Sugrue’s winemaking style as uncompromising.

‘I’m not setting out to make crowd-pleasing wines,’ he agrees, ‘but it’s a myth that I never use malolactic fermentation. I prefer not to, because I feel that celebrating the acidity we have is an important part of the expression of English sparkling wine.

‘Plus these are wines destined for long ageing, and the malic acid gives an energy and freshness that marry with the mature flavours that you get with age. But I will use it [malo] if it makes the wine better.’

He’s excited about the quality of the 2023 vintage, which he says is greater than the much-exalted 2018.

‘In 2018 many growers overcropped,’ he says. ‘Also the grapes in 2018 had high sugar levels but lacked the physiological ripeness of the grapes in 2023. In 2023, you could see the seeds were brown inside the grapes, so totally ripe.’

It’s too early to talk about regionality in the UK, believes Sugrue, but he is excited about the current state of winemaking in England – and the potential that lies ahead.

‘There’s a world of opportunity ahead, and we have more experienced and technically astute winemakers than we’ve ever had here.

‘On the other hand, there’s still a lot to learn viticulturally, and the speed of vineyard expansion is out-stripping the supply of experienced vineyard workers. We need to develop our skill sets and personnel.’

Wine tourism

Sugrue South Downs will be offering tours and tastings by appointment only, from the autumn, when all work on the winery should be finished.

These tours will be led by either Ana or Dermot, and will take in both the vineyard and winery; they will include tasting from the barrels and then a tasting of bottled wines at the tasting table with cheese/charcuterie, plus a goodie bag.

Visitors to the winery, keep an eye out for the small plastic crates lying around – which tell a tale of their own.

‘I made a lot of money buying them secondhand from Holland, where they were used in the flower industry, and then selling them to UK wine-growers. It helped me get where I am today,’ he explains.

Sugrue’s innovative, energetic, uncompromising and slightly left-field nature helps to explain the exceptional quality of the English wines he is producing.

Anyone serious about discovering the best of English sparkling wine shouldn’t miss the opportunity to visit. A wine club is also in the pipeline.

sugruesouthdowns.com (Look out for our Sussex travel guide in the June 2024 issue of Decanter.)

Dermot Sugrue wines:

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