{"id":54281,"date":"2026-06-02T07:56:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T07:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/54281\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T07:56:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T07:56:27","slug":"the-irishman-who-went-from-making-beer-in-his-bedroom-at-15-to-making-wine-for-britains-king-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/54281\/","title":{"rendered":"The Irishman who went from making beer in his bedroom at 15 to making wine for Britain\u2019s king \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

England-based winemaker<\/a> Dermot Sugrue has always been fascinated by fermentation. Growing up in Kilmallock in Co Limerick<\/a>, he started making beer<\/a> in his bedroom when he was 15. \u201cWhen I was 16 years of age the local archdeacon gave me a bottle of elderberry port and that\u2019s what inspired me. I thought \u2018I want to make this\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rev Brian Snow also gave me a copy of Hugh Johnson\u2019s wine book, first published in 1967. I could still recite entire paragraphs from that book because I devoured it as a 16-year-old, especially that opening paragraph when he talks about the difference between something that\u2019s like lily white sap in the glass compared to some deep unctuous Tokai Asz\u00fa from the 18th century. It is remarkable that 30-odd years later Hugh Johnson, the person who wrote that book and inspired the window of wonder into wine for me as a teenager, has now invested in our business.\u201d<\/p>\n

English wine has enjoyed two decades of huge growth and success, with a record 16 million-plus bottles produced in 2025. With similar chalk soils to Champagne, and mostly using the same chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes, the best wines can compare favourably with Champagne, often beating them in blind tastings. Don\u2019t expect them to be cheaper than Champagne, though. Most producers are at the boutique end and have high running costs. <\/p>\n

Sugrue went to England in 1992 to study environmental science and ended up working two vintages (harvests) in Bordeaux, which got him really interested in wine. He joined Nyetimber, one of the very first English sparkling wine producers, and was quickly promoted to head winemaker.<\/p>\n

From there he did two things; in 2006 he planted a small vineyard at Storrington in west Sussex for the monastic Norbertine order of Catholic priests with Fr Paul McMahon. When the first vintage was eaten by birds, McMahon quipped, \u201cThat\u2019s the trouble with dreams,\u201d a title Sugrue has now given to one of his wines.<\/p>\n

That same year, he joined the Goring family who own Wiston Estate, a long-established 6,500 acre farm on chalk soils in the South Downs. They wanted to plant a vineyard, initially to supply Nyetimber. Instead, Sugrue set up a contract winemaking facility, making wine for dozens of other producers as well as Wiston. \u201cI think I calculated that I made over 300 individual cuv\u00e9es and over 3,000,000 bottles, so this was really where I cut my winemaking teeth.\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

While working for Wiston, Sugrue was running his own small winery. In 2022, he began to work full time for Sugrue South Downs. It is now one of the most highly regarded producers in the UK, releasing a string of award-winning wines, each with an idiosyncratic name.<\/p>\n

Sugrue Downs owns the small Bee Tree vineyard and buys grapes and leases vineyards all over the region. The company has turned an old tractor shed into a winery, which also hosts regular events. \u201cIt was just a very, very rudimentary tractor barn in a in a sea of mud basically, and we\u2019ve gone to town on it,\u201d says Sugrue. <\/p>\n

\"MostMost of the tanks and equipment at Sugrue South Downs were bought second hand from wineries that were closing all over Europe. Photograph: Sarah Weal \"SugrueSugrue South Downs farms five vineyards across east and west Sussex in England. Photograph: Sarah Weal <\/p>\n

Most of the tanks and equipment were bought second hand from wineries that were closing all over Europe. He travelled around the Continent buying up such machinery. \u201cWe\u2019ve turned it into a great winemaking space but so we\u2019ll receive all of our grapes here from our numerous vineyards that we\u2019re now managing 100 per cent ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sugrue has lined up an enviable list of investors, including actor Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey and Paddington), chef Angela Hartnett, hotelier Robert Hutson, founder of the luxury Pig Hotels and Hotel du Vin group, and the aforementioned legendary wine writer, Johnson. The business holds regular intimate tastings and dinners for the public with chefs such as Mark Hix, Mitch Tonks and Hartnett.<\/p>\n

\"HughHugh Bonneville at Sugrue South Downs. Photograph: Sarah Weal \"EachEach wine at Sugrue South Downs has an idiosyncratic name. Photograph: Sarah Weal <\/p>\n

And so to the wines; Sugrue is inventive in the names he gives to them. His primary wine is The Trouble With Dreams. Then there is Bonkers Zombie Robot Alien Monsters From the Future Ate My Brain (sur lie) and \u201cZodo\u201d, Ros\u00e9 Ex Machina, Rock Story, Cuv\u00e9e Boz, and Cuv\u00e9e Brendan O\u2019Regan, named after his great-uncle, the visionary who invented duty-free. His wines tend to be racy and lean, with fine, elegant fruit and great depth. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trouble with Dreams is the most important wine, our premier wine, the one we make every year,\u201d he says. But he also certainly has fun making seriously good once-off wines. The O\u2019Regan is sublime wine, rich, layered and complex with an amazing finish. It is currently being poured on British Airways in first class.<\/p>\n

Sugrue\u2019s next project is a red pinot noir. \u201cIt\u2019s so exciting for me because I\u2019m a frustrated red wine maker, hence my beginnings in Bordeaux, and now to be able to indulge my fantasies and passions for making what I think could be world class red wine in England, well, I never ever saw that coming.\u201d <\/p>\n

I tried the first vintage, which was excellent. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Did you know there are more than a dozen vineyards in Ireland?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first vintage of this, the 2022, was only four barriques, so 1,200 bottles. We released 1,000 bottles and we sold them all in three and a half hours online at \u00a365 a pop,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The fruit comes from Crouch Valley in Essex, \u201cthe driest, warmest place in the UK by some distance\u201d. he says. \u201cHaving made wine in England for 23 years now, in my view the South Downs chalk is the best place to make sparkling wine in the UK, but for making still wine irrefutably it\u2019s Essex and specifically what they call this Dengie Peninsula between the rivers Crouch and Blackwater.\u201d<\/p>\n

His investors are important. Harnett\u2019s Murano group and the Pig Hotels have their own cuv\u00e9e of sparkling wine, allowing them to sell it by the glass. Hutson has become the chairman of Sugrue South Downs. \u201cWe get his wonderful, amazing experience \u2013 he is this unbelievably respected and experienced hospitality trailblazer who absolutely adores wine and adores what we\u2019ve been doing,\u201d says Sugrue.<\/p>\n

He describes Johnson as \u201clovely, just very relaxed about life in general\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he\u2019s just so encyclopedic and really knowledgeable about so many things, effortlessly articulate and he has the ability to reduce complex things to just sort of simple little sentences but he also he writes so beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s involvement came about through his granddaughter. \u201cAbout four or five years ago Hugh Johnson\u2019s granddaughter was asked coming up to her 18th birthday what she would like to do for her 18th birthday. She said, \u2018I\u2019d like to visit Sugrue South Downs\u2019, so we had a royal visit of three generations of the of the Johnson family, including author Kitty Johnson who\u2019s wonderful. That kind of, I think, sealed the deal and Hugh proposed that he would like to invest so he became an investor as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish wine makers: \u2018It is a miracle. Last year we got the same volume as growers in the north of Italy\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Sugrue is a rare mix of talented winemaker and entrepreneur. He is driven, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and talks incessantly. He knows each and every vineyard, its character, and he is also genuinely interested in your opinion of his wines. Today, he is recognised as one of the best sparkling winemakers in the UK, some would say the best, with a string of awards and high scores for his wines. King Charles is a fan and serves his wine at state dinners. His Croatian wife Ana Sugrue, also a very experienced winemaker, came to teach at nearby Plumpton College, where most English winemakers come to study. She now looks after sales. They have a son Ronan, named after his father. He is also an enthusiastic cyclist, having ridden for Kilmallock Cycling Club in his youth along with his two brothers.<\/p>\n

\"AA victorious Dermot Sugrue racing in Clonakilty in 1986, watched by his father Ronan Sugrue in dark jumper and pale trousers. Photograph: Irish Examiner <\/p>\n

Sugrue South Downs wines are available from Searsons in Monkstown, Co Dublin and Searsons.com; Jus de Vin, Portmarnock, Co Dublin; Sweeneys D3 in Dublin 3; F\u00edon Eile in Dublin 7; Avoca stores and Worldwide Wines in Waterford for \u20ac45-\u20ac100 a bottle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England-based winemaker Dermot Sugrue has always been fascinated by fermentation. Growing up in Kilmallock in Co Limerick, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,26709,5,4915],"class_list":["post-54281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-britain","tag-limerick","tag-uk","tag-wine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116679448021428572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}