Wines & Tours Newsletter – July 2021

Newsletter – July 2021

Many of us in the UK and overseas have been in limbo or simply marking time for the past eighteen months or so, in anticipation that the wretched global coronavirus might simply ebb away to become a distant memory – not so it seems.

So, during the past two lockdown periods, by having to contend with certain travel restrictions, we have gradually carried-out a thorough research of the UK network of vineyards and wine producers – which astonishingly now number over seven hundred, mainly in England with a lesser amount in Wales.

In considering the rules of “face and space” with the mandatory wearing of face masks whilst shopping, we thought we should experiment a different form of travel in combining “wine tourism” with a distinct measure of “social distancing” wherever a day might take us.

With a little more thought and research into deciding the “when” and “where” to meet and by continuing to offer our usual arrangement of visiting just two wine producers in a day (one in the morning and another in the afternoon) – we have recently launched our new wine tourism initiative of “Single-Day E-Bike Wine Tours” – initially within the UK (mainly in England) and in Cyprus too!

YOTES COURT- On the Bridle Bacchus

(Continued)

As for the UK, the South-East of England is home to a greater proportion of vineyards and wine producers. So, we decided to select our initial UK e-bike wine tour routes within Kent and East Sussex which are easily accessible by train or by car from London.

Woodchurch wine, spring view

Details on our first three single-day e-bike wine tours in England, (named by the first part of each respective area post code), start from selected “railway stations” as “meeting points”. Our first two area routes in Kent are ME18 and TN26 (meeting at Wateringbury and Appledore railway stations, respectively) and our East Sussex route TN31 starts and finishes at Rye railway station.

Oxney picnic area

We are offering each respective e-bike wine tour route (in the UK) to be held on a specific weekday, ME18 is on a Wednesday, TN26 a Thursday and TN31 on Friday’s. Full information including timing, meeting points, venue locations and costs can be found in our website in the drop-down list under the heading “Single-Day E-Bike Wine Tours” tab, or follow the links below.

As for Cyprus, Bill (joint founder of Wines & Tours), has chosen the first E-Bike Wine Tour in Cyprus to be held in the Larnaca area, soon in July. As summer temperatures can get extremely hot in Cyprus – Bill (who happens to run a café / restaurant there) has decided that participants would welcome an early start – so before any cycling begins, he is offering to cook everyone an “English Breakfast – Cyprus Style”. For full details of the future day’s activity, see: https://www.winesandtours.co.uk/e-bike-wine-tour-larnaca/