WINE AND DINE Gusbourne, near Ashford, is one of the UK’s most successful English wine producers receiving acclaim for its award-winning sparkling wines and exceptional visitor experience. Founded in 2004, Gusbourne produces a range of sparkling and still wines from grapes grown at its vineyards in Kent and West Sussex. Its sparkling wines are well known, but it’s also growing its reputation for great still wines, and is soon to launch its first 100 per cent Pino Meunier. The vineyard in Appledore, Kent, is home to The Nest tasting room, and it’s here editor Kelly visited one particularly dark, dank and dreary afternoon. She says, “Located in a beautiful spot The Nest at once feels welcoming and oh-so modern. We were warmly greeted and shown to our seats on the ground floor for our Sparkling Tasting Flight, accompanied by a plate of absolutely delicious local crackers and cheese. Here, mum and I spent an incredibly enjoyable hour sampling the vineyard’s delightful produce, and being educated on how each came about along with how to pair them. “English sparkling wine is experiencing a heyday at the moment, with plenty of domestic producers giving the Champagne region a run for it’s money. With delightful sparkling wines like Gusbourne’s it’s very easy to see why. It’s so difficult to pick a favourite as it feels like this would be doing the wines I didn’t pick an injustice, so I’d definitely recommend booking this wine flight for yourself to see which would work best with your wedding breakfast. “After the wine flight we headed upstairs for a Wine Lunch, which gave us a good idea of what wines complement various courses, meats, fish and so on. We started out with an aperitif of the Brut Reserve, which would be the ideal glass of bubbly to serve at a wedding drinks reception. Fine and delicate it’s bursting with orchard fruit notes, perfect for summer nuptials. It’s also worth mentioning the lovely 2018 Rosé here, which we sampled on the wine flight – an English summer’s day in a glass it boasts a fresh palate dominated by red cherry, ripe strawberry and raspberry. “The incredible starter of spiced venison carpaccio, roasted beetroot, parsnip puree, sweet pickled onion, cheese, watercress and parsley emulsion was served with the Blanc de Noir. It’s a generous wine on the palate with notes of redcurrant, raspberry and red cherry, with floral hints of rose and jasmine. It worked beautifully with the gamey flavour of the venison. Main course was fish, a pan-roasted stone bass with butter beans, lemon, dill and sorrel, crispy pancetta, spinach, roasted cauliflower, toasted hazelnuts, golden raisins soaked in Gusbourne verjus and sea herbs. Again, every mouthful was perfect and we were treated to a glass of Blanc de Blanc along with one of the still wines, Chardonnay Guinevere. The citrus nature of both suited the delicate flavour of the fish beautifully. The meal was rounded off with a dark chocolate and sea salt tart, torched fig, Gusbourne honey and orange gel, vanilla whipped mascarpone, crushed pistachio and orange tuile.” To find out more, visit www.gusbourne.com BACK ON TRACK The Kent Wedding Fair at Priestfield Stadium is back for 2023 following a three-year break. The event, organised by White Sky Events, is one of the largest wedding shows in the Medway towns and offers a wide variety of suppliers dedicated to making your special day perfect. The fairs will take place on Sunday 19th February and Sunday 21st May, 2023, and are open from 10.30am to 2.30pm at Priestfield Stadium, Redfern Avenue, Gillingham. If you’d like to attend, you can now pre-register via the website www.kentweddingfair.co.uk, and all couples receive a goodie bag. For further information, check out the website or follow @kentweddingfair on Instagram and Facebook for news and updates. SNAP HAPPY Wedding photographer Lisa Ford at Forever Memories is celebrating another award win from Pretty Little Poser Magazine in recognition of her portrait-taking prowess. She tells us, “I applied for the All Stars category in May 2022 by submitting my image on the Facebook page. Hundreds were posted from all over the world. From there I was selected to go through to the editor’s choice and was narrowed down to the final 30, at which point the competition was opened up to a public vote. My image got the most votes and I was awarded Gold People’s Choice!” In November 2022, Lisa decided to apply for another category, Perfect Beauty and the same happened again, with a second Gold People’s Choice award. So, one thing’s for sure, if you were to book Forever Memories for your big day, you’ll be left with showstopping couple portraits to treasure for lifetime! Find out more at https://forevermemorieskent.mypixieset.com Scan to view video YOUR ESSENTIALS 9
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