Last week Louisa and the Breaky Bottom team, including @emma_rice_wines tasted tank samples of the 2025 vintage.
This was a very poignant tasting as it was our first vintage without Peter. A blend of Seyval Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, this was the first time we’ve tasted it this year, and we took samples to send off for a pre-bottling analysis.
The wine is fresh, complex and multi-layered and we can’t wait for you to all try it in a few years.
Breaky Bottom often produce two cuvées per year and age them in bottle for at least four years prior to release.
Compared to most wineries, the production is modest. Typically, less than 10,000 bottles of each cuvée are made. Every bottle is numbered.
Peter then dedicated every wine to the memory of a close friend or relative. Our 2018 Chardonnay Geoffrey Aldred is named after a dear friend of the family. “Geoffrey is a superb stonemason, carver and lettercutter; a designer and maker of memorials, garden and ecclesiastical sculpture and countless inscriptions in stone. The list of his achievements is huge. He is a very modest man”
We are delighted that this wine is available to purchase through @maggies_of_lewes
Our very nice contractor Tom in his dainty little Fendt tractor that fits down our rows perfectly! Applying slow release fertiliser to nourish the vines. @sussex_viticultural_services
These 26 Poplar trees were lovingly planted by our brother Tom with Dad in 1982. They dramatically frame the vineyard and act as a wind break from the coastal breezes. There were in fact very few trees at Breaky Bottom when Peter first arrived in 1968. He loved planting trees, and Tom and he were the main tree planting team.
Zoey @maggies_of_lewes receiving her first order of Breaky Bottom. What a wonderful reception!
In stock now; 2018 Geoffrey Aldred Chardonnay and 2015 Jack Pike Seyval Blanc.
Maggies is a gem of a shop on the High Street in Lewes. Opening just over a year ago it is a treasure trove of local producers and independent and often bold producers. We are delighted to be here, thank you Zoey! Happy Mayday weekend.
Dad loved the fact that he shared a birthday with the Queen, or more accurately – she shared a birthday with him! Today, we are all remembering Peter in our own way, and wishing him a Happy Birthday.
For me he was a true countryman, a plantsman, a birdwatcher and fisherman (oh what a fisherman!). And a gentleman.
Growing up I spent hours watching and admiring his hands…..making things; mending things; bringing animals back to life; tying flies for me when I was too young, impatient or cold to do it myself. I loved those hands, patient hands that could unravel a birds-nest of line and unpick the tightest knot.
This was the last time we fished together – in May 2020 – and it was a blissful day. Dad, like his brother Patrick could cast a fly when sitting, or even probably lying down, as it was so deeply intrenched. They could cast into the eye of the wind if a fish caught their attention.
What I would give to have hands like these……and cast a fly like them.
Toby. X
We are the Hall family; we were born here, we grew up on this land, we planted the trees and the vines with our Dad, Peter, we laughed here, had many a vintage time and are now looking after the future of Breaky Bottom
