60% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir
75cl * 12% ABV * Sussex, England
The Trouble with Dreams started life as just that, an ill-fated attempt to grow grapes for mainly monastic wine in 2008, attractive only to the birds. The priest leading the monastic mission remarked that this is the trouble with dreams. Rather than be dismayed by this setback, the wine maker Dermot Sugrue persevered, embodying the words of William Butler Yeats, 'an Irishman has an abiding sense of tragedy, to sustain him through the temporary periods of joy'.
Trouble with Dreams has since grown into one of finest wines in England, and this exceptionally warm and ripe 2020 vintage marks its 10th release. The fruit comes from the Storrington Priory and Coldharbour Vineyards in West Sussex, as well as the Mount Harry Vineyard in East Sussex.
The wine has been vinified in 500 litre Burgundian oak barrels and stainless steel, as well as going through partial malolactic fermentation, after which it is aged for three and a half years on its lees. The result is a wine of much texture and complexity, with a focused minerality and autolytic, fruit-driven profile on the palate.
Great as an aperitif but also pairs well with a hard Sussex sheep's cheese or some freshly caught seafood.