"Daddy. This is very nice but is it legal?"
Wineoftheweek finds itself on holiday in Cornwall this week and we’ve taken the opportunity to introduce Wineoftheweek Junior to his first vineyard.
The little man is a mere 6 months old but he’s already showing signs of a sophisticated palette. In fact, only this morning he devoured a combination of banana and camomile with real distinction.
So we picked up a hire bike in Wadebridge, attached a baby trailer and headed off down the Camel Trail in the direction of Bodmin. The trail is an eleven mile stretch of disused railway that runs alongside the meandering River Camel linking Padstow to Bodmin along the way.
The vineyard is about 2 miles down the track and you turn directly off the path into the Camel Valley vines. The vineyard is owned and run by the Lindo family. Bob and Annie planted their first vines here in 1989 and over the subsequent two decades have picked up too many plaudits and awards to list. Son Sam is now the chief winemaker.
WineOfTheWeek is no fan of wine awards given out by industry bodies but we must take our cycle clips off to Camel Valley for playing with the big boys and winning big (if you are interested in awards then look here).
WOTW Junior contributed very little to the ascent to the vineyard but once we’d got there he thoroughly enjoyed working through the full range of wines with his dad. Camel Valley is best known for its fizz (it provides the bubbles for Fortnam & Mason’s own label English Sparkler) but has won recognition for it’s Cornish Bacchus. The wines are stocked in Waitrose and you can read all about them here from people who know better.
A cracking shop/tasting room overlooks the vines and you can sip fizz on the terrace until your legs tell you better.
Visit the Camel Valley website
Stick with me son, you'll go far. Well, as far as this bike will take us.
Looks awesome, and blue skies too!
Twas excellent. They’ve done a really good job with the shop/tasting area, There’s a terrace overlooking the vines and really friendly/knowledgable staff. Great stuff. Although you won’t get me trying their Red again ;(
the wee bairn looks right at home in the land of the grape.
He’s 100% grape.