English Wine Tour
09/06/2025 – 11/06/2025
Kent and Sussex
I am pleased to announce that the Club’s 2025 Private Wine Tour will take place from Monday 9th June – Wednesday 11th June 2025.
For our 21st tour, we will visit Kent and Sussex, 1066 country, with the delightful town of Rye as our base. Rye is a historical place, one of the medieval Cinque Ports, with cobbled streets and a tradition of intrigue and smuggling. From here, and there will be some free time to explore the town, we will visit several excellent producers, including Chapel Down, Gusborne and Balfour Hush Heath. Given the significant number of high-quality producers throughout England, we will also be holding a dinner showcasing still wines from other regions.
As always, there will be a mixture of tastings and lunches, including the top wines from these estates. The wine estates have been selected to cover both sparkling and the increasingly successful still wines now being produced in England. The tour will start at Canterbury West Station and end at Headcorn Station (both with frequent direct trains to London). The full itinerary can be found on the Club’s website.
The Tour is again being organised by Cindy-Marie Harvey, who has just finished leading our incredibly successful tour to the Loire Valley. With over 27 years’ experience in designing and escorting wine tours to all the leading wine regions of the world, she has her own company, Love Wine Food Ltd., organising exclusive wine tours for private groups.
The cost of the tour will be £1,495 per person if we have a full complement of 28 people. This is based on two people sharing a double/twin room at The Lookout in Rye. Upgrades are available at both Hotels being offered. There is a supplement of from £100 for a double room for sole occupancy. Please note that this price does not include travel to Canterbury/from Headcorn. The full itinerary on the Club’s website has further details.
Full information about financial protection of your money paid for this tour to Love Wine Food Ltd., is available in the booking conditions on the Club’s website.
As I am sure many of you are aware, some previous tours have been oversubscribed and we have had to ballot to select those who were able to take part in them. As there are only 28 places available for this tour and it is likely will be oversubscribed, it is essential you meet the application deadline to ensure you do not lose your opportunity to take part in the ballot. The ballot will be weighted according to membership attendance at functions since July 2020.
To register your interest and be entered into the ballot, please have your booking form completed and returned to Cindy-Marie Harvey no later than 17:00 hrs on Friday, 23rd August 2024. The booking form can be downloaded from the Club’s website and then scanned and emailed or posted to Cindy-Marie using the details on the form. If posting the form, it would be wise to notify Cindy-Marie by phone or email that it is on its way. All applications will be acknowledged by email from Love Wine Food Ltd. to confirm your place in the ballot. If you do not receive such a notification, please contact Cindy-Marie. For these and any other queries, Cindy-Marie can be contacted by email at cmh@lovewinefood.com or by calling 07810 371 633.
At the time of registration there is no deposit required. Please do confirm on your booking form, which of the two Hotels in Rye and what category of room you require, as these are subject to availability and will be assigned in order of receipt of booking form (prior to ballot).
If you are successful in the ballot, then a deposit payment of £850 will be required when you are notified of this. Notification of the result of the ballot will be by email.
There are a few things that make our tours special – the warmth of feeling amongst the members participating, the superb organisation which makes everything so easy and the quality of the wines that we get to taste and drink. I therefore unhesitatingly recommend to you what your Committee believes will be a very enjoyable and memorable tour.
Yours sincerely
Azim Karimjee
Chairman
PDF version of Chairman's letter
Booking form
How to book
Engliish Wine tour 2025
Booking Conditions