THE MOUNT

 The Mount Vineyard is not far from Seveonaks, near Shoreham in Kent (not to be confused with any other Shoreham in south-east England). Shoreham is one of those villages which is defying the general trend of closing pubs by having at least 3, all of which seem to be doing just fine. 

I headed to the Mount on a Saturday, which involved a lot of town riding (partly because the M25 is boring, and partly because the M25 was partly closed). I’m not a big fan of town riding, but as I’d been overly optimistic and put on my summer jacket, the lack of a 70 mph headwind wasn’t the worst thing. Traffic was pretty bad, though, as there seemed to be a plethora of roadworks between the A3 and the A21. 

The A21 is a pretty fun road, though, and the A224 has some nice moments as well. Then I was onto an unclassified single lane road winding up and down hills between some very leafy hedges, which have clearly been making the most of the late summer sun. The surface, however, was surprisingly good for the road type - I’m used to roads like this having potholes and muddy patches and general damage from farm vehicles for which they were not designed. 

The Mount’s driveway and parking are, of course, gravel. But shallow gravel, which is much easier on the bike than the deep, grip-less stuff. Leaving was an experience. They were having a busy day, so had instituted a one-way system, which included leaving via a field. 

For field, read: dodge the ruts and mud-slicks and people walking their dogs. 

The setting is beautiful, the shop is well-stocked and very friendly and the coffee shop was shut. The restaurant, however, was open and served very good coffee. The menu isn’t the most varied, being largely pizza and salad, but I have no problems with a limited menu if a place does it as well as The Mount did. 

DENBIES

 I’ve been going to Denbies for years. Adding it to this summer’s collection of vineyards feels almost like cheating, but given that I’m still healing from the bicycle accident, I wanted a shorter, more familiar run than any of the Kent or Hampshire options. Denbies is a fairly straight and easy run down the A24, corrugated roads and tar banding notwithstanding.

Denbies is very well geared towards visitors, although I suggest parking closer to the building, where it’s paved, rather than on the openwork bricks further away - particularly if it’s been raining, as side-stands and mud are not a great combination at the best of times. The bricks are openwork enough that this is a consideration. 

Denbies is not far from Box Hill and Ryka’s, but has infinitely better coffee than Ryka’s. This isn’t all that startling an achievement: Ryka’s serves instant. As I am an unabashed coffee snob, I don’t do instant.

The visitor centre is just that - containing a gift shop, event space and more than one option for coffee. They also tend to do an interesting line in cakes, if, like me, you get there in between actual meal times

JUMP

Recently, I had a bicycle accident involving wet road paint, a downhill, the mechanics of braking and grip, and smooth concrete. This did damage to both knees, both shoulders, wrists and elbows. It took over a week before I had sufficient mobility even to contemplate riding the motorbike again. 

Let’s be clear - I don’t try to save a sliding bike of any kind if I’m not absolutely sure I can. I don’t filter through gaps I’m not instantly sure are wide enough. The first rule of filtering: if you have to think about whether you’ll fit, you won’t. 

Sliding or skidding vehicles are similar - if you’re not bone-deep, instinctively sure you can save it, you can’t. So just jump. This advice came to me from a surgeon who had to repair the damage caused by a biker not jumping. Hit the kill switch if you can, but jump. 

Having jumped, I got off with soft tissue damage. Yes, it takes a long time to heal, but at least I can go riding unencumbered by casts and slings and doctor's orders. 

A gentle run on familiar roads, nothing too twisty or complex until I am not on three doses of anti-inflammatory gel a day, and no longer have bruises which object to the lightest impact of gravel bits or insects. 

I shall resume my tour of vineyards soon. I really hope.  

SUNNYHILL

 Sunnyhill is just southeast of Oxford, and makes organic wine and cider. It also has llamas. I had arranged to meet a friend there, as it’s about equidistant for us. The problem with arrangements involving other people is that it’s harder to change plans when the weather forecast changes. 

Because motorways are boring, I took the A-roads - the A40, which is fun and has some fun twists between Stokenchurch and Tetworth - coming off at Wheatley. 

This is summer, of course, so the signposts are somewhat obscured by overly enthusiastic plant-life. But from Wheatley to Ladder Hill to Cuddesdon wasn’t overly complicated. 

Once there, I barely got into their little cafe before the rain really started to come down. They do serve cake with their coffee, which helps with the thawing and relaxing process.

I feel that Sunnyhill would be nicer in weather that better matched its name. 

I came back on the motorway - boring, but safer in the weather conditions (driving rain, very little visibility, high levels of spray) - and would really like the UK to institute the following 2 road rules: A lower speed limit in poor visibility or bad weather (which most of Europe already has) and headlights on in poor visibility or bad weather. Cars vanish into the spray without lights, regardless of paint colour. 

RIDGEVIEW

Ridgeview Vineyard is down near Brighton, on the Ditchling side. I took the A24, because the M23 is, like most motorways, boring. So, from London, A24, A272 all the way under the M23 Junction up to Ansty, then the B2036 (fun, and in good condition for a B road) towards Ditchling. Ridgeview is on Fragbarrow (I love English place and road names sometimes), off the B2112. 

Now for the important stuff: Fragbarrow is paved. As is the Ridgeview driveway, AND half their parking. I am a HUGE fan of road surfaces on which my bike and boots have grip and parking surfaces on which my bike stand will live up to its name, rather than sinking down into gravel or mud.

The other half of their parking is gravel, but under a very fine mesh that stops the sinking aspect nicely by providing non-gravel bits to go under the stand.

Ridgeview’s shop only sells wine and wine-related items, but if you walk around the corner, they have a restaurant on site, which serves a fairly limited menu of drinks and dishes it does very well. I recommend their Sunday lunch. 

ALBURY ORGANIC

 Albury Organic is just behind the parking for Silent Pool on the A25. It’s up a really steep, rutted track from there, with gravel of varying and unpredictable depth, which crosses an established walking route. If you’re going, park in the paved Silent Pool parking and walk from there, past the Silent Pool Gin place and the little eatery next to that. 

Albury has a tasting room that serves a few appetisers/ bar snacks and is pretty and pleasant, but it doesn’t have anything not-wine to drink (except water). To a biker, this is not a selling point.

TINWOOD ESTATE

 Just north of Chichester is the Tinwood estate, which produces sparkling wines. It looked to be doable, in timing terms, to fit in before the predicted rain, so I headed off. The A3 is full of roadworks and therefore delays. The A283 would be more fun if resurfaced - it has some nice twisties and it’s varied, but so is the road surface - a kind of patchwork of tar bands and potholes. 

The A285, however, is FUN. It has twists and hills and some good fast bits and goes through scenic villages. I was enjoying it so much, I missed the turn into Tinwood, and had to do a somewhat awkward U-turn on adverse camber. 

Tinwood has deep gravel parking, resulting in negative grip for both tyres and boots. It is, however, flattish. This is the downside. 

It has a lovely cafe area and very tasty food to suit all dietary restrictions. When I was there, they were out of plant milk, but as the coffee is good enough not to need milk, this was just a minor inconvenience. 

The predicted rain decided not to happen until well after I was home, roadwork delays and all.