Henry Warde of
Squerryes Estate in Westerham welcomed a host of VIP guests to celebrate the winery’s hugely popular “Seafood Tapas On The Terrace” sessions and the official launch of its stunning outside space.
Guests relaxed on the luxurious terrace with breathtaking views of the vineyard, as they enjoyed Squerryes’ champion wines and a sumptuous tapas lunch by acclaimed Kent chefs David Marsaud and Christopher Reeves.
They were then invited to a tour of the vines as they tucked into a desert of Ightam strawberries, sorbet, Squerryes bubbles and Elderflower panna cotta.
The Saturday tapas sessions
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Seafood Tapas[/caption]
Due to their popularity the tapas sessions have been extended to the end of August and include a delicious à la carte-style menu featuring the finest seafood from British coastal waters with a headline dish of fresh Cornish lobster.
Ten smaller plates, priced from £4 to £6, also make up the carefully curated menu including Whitstable rock oysters and Dorset salmon Caesar salad.
Sparkling Squerryes, delicious still wines and Westerham Brewery beers are also on offer, as are vegetarian dishes and mouth-watering desserts.
The new venture by Squerryes owner Henry Warde hopes to go beyond simply serving food and wine to guests but deliver the “joyous experience” ethos his North Downs vineyard is becoming renowned for.
Henry Warde of the
Squerryes Estate, home to his family for over 300 years, said: “We are in the ‘business of joy’ and now we’ve bottled it in our wines, we are opening our doors for people to experience everything we have here at Squerryes.
“It’s a simply beautiful place where people can relax and unwind and enjoy the English countryside at its best. We hope these Saturday sessions offer a chance for people to get away from the 9 to 5 drudgery and to feel re-invigorated.
“We are incredibly lucky to have our chefs David and Peter on board who share our vision and have created a delicious seafood tapas menu which compliments our wines beautifully.
“We have some truly delicious sparkling wines at Squerryes but unlike the vineyards of France and Italy where welcoming groups of wine-tasters is the norm, it still is an odd concept in Britain – but thankfully, eating is not!
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Squerryes new terrace[/caption]
“We are hoping this new idea of bringing great food to our winery will lead to us sharing our wine and beautiful space to people in a unique and joyous way.”
Speaking of his ethos of bringing joy to Squerryes’ visitors he added: “Our family motto - ‘Licet Esse Beatis’: it is permitted to be joyful’ - is inscribed over our front door and it pours into the house with an energy that is fantastically infectious.
“It also spills over into our work, to such an extent that we consider ourselves to be in the ‘business of joy’.
“This is really what drives us - from nurturing the vineyard and winery, to creating our fantastic terrace overlooking the Garden Of England to providing this new food and wine experience – we simply want people to enjoy.”
Squerryes sits within a productive 2,500 acre estate in the Kent Downs and is easily accessible from Surrey, Sussex and London.
Henry Warde created the relatively new vineyard after a Champagne house visited the estate in 2004 to try and buy some of the land after a survey revealed the soil had qualities similar to the esteemed “Cote des Blancs” region of Champagne.
After politely declining their offer, Henry set about planting his own vines on the land and now produces vintage sparkling wine, both Brut and Rose, produced solely from their own grapes.
Tapas on the Terrace is open every Saturday midday to 6pm throughout the summer months, please go to
www.squerryes.co.uk for more information. For reservations please call 01959 562345 or email celebrations@squerryes.co.uk