We were up, showered, dressed and on the road to Kent by 8am this morning, taking the A14 and the M11 to get to the busy M25. I was very wary of speed cameras and asked Sophie to put Jeeves on so he could warn me of where they were!
Once over the bridge, we turned off onto the A2, but Jeeves directed me off this once we had passed Rochester and onto country roads until we reached the M20, which was slightly strange... why didn't we take the M20 after the M25?
By now, I was more than ready for a coffee, so we stopped at Maidstone services and treated ourselves to a McDonald’s breakfast, which we ate in the car, fascinated by the number of people using the drive-thru. Suitably refreshed, we headed towards the village of Biddenden, firstly on the busy A20 and then on a much smaller rural road, which could barely fit two cars. Luckily, I was following someone, so I was pre-warned when I saw them brake! The countryside was stunning, and once off this narrow road, we travelled through pretty villages, interspersed with green tunnels of trees.
Unfortunately, the weather was disappointing, with the sky shrouded in grey cloud, and there was a light drizzle every now and again. We eventually arrived at the village of Biddenden, and the vineyard was signposted along a narrow lane.
We used the umbrella as it was raining quite hard, and walked the short distance to the small shop where we asked if we could just try some wines without the tour of the vineyard. The woman serving was a bit offhand and brushed aside my reference to the bad weather, saying she thought it was lovely... hmmm!
We were given a card each with the wines made at the vineyard and told to choose three each. I paid £36 for the privilege, and we took our cards and obediently sat down at one of the tables, making a note of our name and the table number.
I chose:
The Ortega Chapter 55 13% £17 a bottle
The Riesling 2024 9.5% £17 a bottle
The White Pinot Noir 2024 12% and also £17 a bottle.
Sophie chose:
The Ortega Dry 2023 11.5% £15.40 a bottle
The Huxelrube 2024 £17.20 a bottle
The White Pinot Noir (same as me)
Keith chose:
The Ortega White 2023 12% £15.40 a bottle
The Baccus 2022, 11.5% £16.70 a bottle
The Dornfelder 2023 (red) 12% £16.70 a bottle.
Sophie took our cards back to the counter, and a woman then brought out a jug of water, three glasses and some water biscuits. The woman who had originally served us brought out three glasses for each of us, balanced on a wooden board, with a small sample of each.
We had a taste of the surprisingly good wines! I'm not a huge fan of English wines, if I'm honest, but we liked all of the ones we had chosen, including the real surprise, the Dornfelder, a red grape variety which does well in the UK because of the similar climate to Germany, its true home. I liked the Ortega Chapter 55, the Bacchus (similar to a Sauvignon Blanc) and the Ortega white. It was good to share them and taste the range on offer.
Sophie then suggested trying a sparkling wine, and I chose a Rosé to try. Both were delicious, so we decided to buy five wines, but separately, so we could each get £5 off! I think they did very well out of us today, and Sophie also bought two branded wine glasses.
We took the wines back to the car, Keith settled down with the newspaper, and Sophie and I went for a quick walk in the vineyard. They have about 25 acres of vines, and small plaques let you know which grape variety is growing in the neat rows.
I'd never seen grapes cultivated as they were at Biddenden, with the fruit hanging low on the bush and all the foliage above. It may be down to the limited amount of sunshine we get here in the UK, and trying to get the grapes to have the maximum light. One area was given over to sunflowers and other plants, but quite a few of the vines had been planted years ago, with the oldest in 1969.
We meandered around for a little while, but Keith was anxious to get to Rye, where we had a table booked for lunch at 2.30pm. We set off along some of the worst potholed roads I've ever had the misfortune to drive on! I thought Kent and Sussex were affluent counties!
Out in the wilds, the 5G was patchy, and we kept losing Jeeves, so we had to rely on Trish and the good old-fashioned map that Keith was looking at. We eventually arrived and found the town to be very busy indeed. I headed for a car park, but it was quite a way from the restaurant, so we drove towards one that the restaurant had recommended. It seemed that the whole of the south of England had the same idea, as we had a real job finding a space, eventually deciding to try our luck in a small car park opposite. We sat and waited, and a couple with a baby arrived. I'm sure they saw us waiting, but they both spent ages cooing over their sprog until Sophie couldn't stand it any longer and jumped out of the car, loudly asking if they were leaving! This prompted them into action, so I was able to reverse into a space. People seem to be so ignorant these days!
Keith fancied a beer before lunch, so we found a pub nearby called The Cinque Ports, a reference to five ports in the south, originally formed for military or trade purposes, and which are Hastings, New Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich.
We entered the noisy pub and Keith ordered mineral water for Sophie and me, and a lager. We took a seat, and I immediately noticed a strong smell of urine and stale smoke... wonderful! Behind where Sophie was sitting was a man filling a Pringles vending machine, and the loud clacks and bangs as he put in the tubes made Sophie look daggers at him! Before this, she had actually asked for my Loops to wear because of the noise!
We begged Keith to drink his lager, and he drained his glass and went to the loo. Then, to make the experience even better, a weird man approached our table, muttered hello, and started touching himself before disappearing into the toilets. I don't think I've ever seen Sophie move so fast! We certainly won't be going back there again!
It was a short walk to the restaurant on pavements so narrow that we were in danger of falling into the road. We spotted a lovely pub with people spilling out onto tables set up in front, and it looked like a much better place! Why hadn't we gone there instead?
We arrived at
Webbe's and had to wait while the front-of-house woman finished a telephone call. All of us got the impression she didn't like us, and we had no idea why! We sat by the window and noticed the hushed atmosphere of the restaurant. It was a little weird!
We chose our meals and waited a while for our orders to be taken. Sophie and I both chose mussels to start, followed by a fillet of hake with chorizo potatoes and spring vegetables. Keith chose grilled mackerel, followed by fried haddock, chips and mushy peas.
We ordered a bottle of Chardonnay to accompany the meal and chatted. Everyone else seemed quiet and were finishing their meals; we realised that we were the last to arrive! After the slightly dodgy start, we had a wonderful meal, and the food was very good. Keith loved his mackerel starter, and even though the batter on his fish wasn't as crispy as he would have liked, he said the meal was delicious.
Sophie and I enjoyed our mussels and the hake, but we both agreed that the strong flavour of the chorizo overpowered the delicate fish a little.
By the time we reached the dessert stage, the restaurant had emptied out completely. Another of the waitresses had been lovely and friendly, asking us what we were doing and amazed that we had visited in one day. Yes, we are a little strange like that!
Keith ordered an Irish coffee, while Sophie and I treated ourselves to a crème brûlée and a coconut panna cotta. Again, the food was delicious.
After paying the bill, we walked back to the car and headed, briefly, for Winchelsea, a short distance away on the coast. I was hoping for a quaint little village and pretty shops, while Sophie wanted to dip her toes in the sea. The reality was somewhat different; endless caravan parks with twee names and a pebbly beach that shelved deeply into the sea, and which gave me the heebie-jeebies. In the distance, I'm sure we could see Dungeness Power Station and banks of wind turbines. They looked like they were out at sea, because the land is so low-lying. It was definitely time to go home, and the sun still hadn't made an appearance!
We headed for Ashford as Keith refused to go back the way we had driven this morning. The land was flat, and we could see rank upon rank of wind turbines stretching away into the distance next to electricity pylons. Every now and again, we crossed a railway track and I thought back to when I'd visited Rye as a teenager with my friend Jane for a French residential week, and we'd travelled by train.
It was a relief to get onto the M20 and make good time home. My suggestion of going through the Blackwall Tunnel and London was firmly quashed, and we made it home by 7.30pm. In Northamptonshire, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. Typical!
We spent the evening relaxing after our busy day, listening to Anoushka Shankar at the Proms, which was sublime!
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