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SOUTH EAST REGION
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Exclusive visit to Denbies Wine Estate - Saturday 27th September 2003
Denbies Wine Estate
The South East region arranged for yet another BMW "Lifestyle" event,with a BMWCC group visit to England's largest Vineyard.
Denbies Wine Estate, London Road, Dorking, Surrey. RH5 6AA.
The event started at 11am with a new 360 degree film about Denbies background. In the film Professor Richard Selley explained that the geological estate of Denbies is ideal for growing fine wines. Dorking has a long association with wine. The North Downs is composed of Chalk and South facing, both help with the growth of the vines. They do not like there roots to be water logged and the Chalk is ideal to drain the rain fall. Being South facing means the vines receive the longest sunshine during the day. The film was displayed on a modern 8 screens system, when you travelled through the vineyard you felt like you were on the tractor. At the very end of the film we were all showered with sparkling white wine!
After the film we were taken on the people carrier through the Winery, which ended with "tasting" of three still wines. Behind the tasting bar were some fine engraved barrels. Our guide explained that the barrels were made of OAK from the trees that were blown over in the storm of 1987. Another point made by our guide was that the grape juice of the white and red grapes is clear and the colour in the red wine is achieved by leaving the red grape skin in the vat for two weeks. Rose is with skins left in for two days. The fine wines are best achieved with vines 15 to 30 years old.
After the 45 minute tour it was time for lunch in the Denbies restaurant, we all had a light lunch as we had to leave room for our Pub meeting that evening.
After lunch it was time to catch the Denbies train for the trip around the estate. With full commentary and stopping to look at the scenery over the North Downs and Boxhill. Boxhill has one interesting fact. That the owner of the Boxhill gave it to the National Trust with one proviso. When he died he must be buried HEAD DOWN at the top of the hill, which he was. Out in the vineyard we had the opportunity to see the only automatic grape picker in the country working, as Denbies had started harvesting this week. The visit to Denbies ended with a trip to the shop where club members purchased a few bottles of wine.
Next it was time for our regions Chairman Dave to take us on a mystery tour which ended up at the EMKA Racing teams premises. We had watched the Group N-GT Porsche 996 Gt 3-RS at the SPA 24 hr race in July on our trip to Spa this year. The surprise was the BMW powered 1998 24 hr Le Mans Mclaren F1 GTR, which finished 4th overall, being one of the cars in the showroom. Other cars were a Lister Jaguar, Lotus and a historic racer. Another BMW link was that one of the teams drivers is Tim Sugden an ex BMW touring car driver. It is hoped to have a proper visit to the team when Dave can arrange it.
Later in the evening we took a stroll through old Dorking high street, some motor racing photographs in one shop took our eye. Then it was time to head for The Pilgrim Pub for our evening meal. So once again another interesting day out with BMW friends.
To find out more information on Denbies Wine Estate Directions, History, Etc, check out their web site