Sussex Gourmet Bus Tour

THERE are many ways to sample great Sussex food and drink – wander down to your local shop, deli, cafe or restaurant to nibble or quaff the finest produce the county has to offer.

But the most fun way is to hop on a vintage Routemaster bus on a Brighton And Hove Food Festival Sussex Gourmet Bus Tour and go and see where the county’s best is shaken from the tree, ripened on the vine and plucked from the sea.

First stop on the tour was Brighton and Newhaven Fish Sales to see all that the company’s 50 ships bring in from the waters between Gosport and Eastbourne.

Less than a decade ago almost all of their catch would be sent abroad and while some still goes to foreign markets, including black bream to France and Spain, cuttlefish to Italy and millions of whelks to the Far East, 60% of their seafood is now sold and consumed locally.

Brighton-based Vamos Paella were cooking up a storm in the car park with a huge cauldron of the Spanish staple chocked full of prawns, mussels, squid and monkfish and a second paella with black squid ink which turned my tongue a colour last seen when I was 14 and chewing on a Black Jack.

Next on the tour we pootled up into the Sussex countryside to visit apple juice and cider producer Wobblegate.

Our guide Tom told us that the name of his family-run Bolney business comes from a less than sturdy gate in one of his fields and not on the impact that drinking too much of his award-winning cider would have on us.

The company is a phoenix from the flames as Tom’s dad was forced to abandon many of his orchards in the 1990s when the apple-growing industry collapsed but over the past six years, they have worked tirelessly to bring back 40 acres, 5,500 trees and 15 apple varieties back to life.

We were given plenty of cider samples to test Tom’s wobble theory of cider getting you drunk from the feet up but the stand-out drink of the day was the russet apple juice which was a wonderfully nutty thirst-quencher.

To line our stomachs, next stop was the historic 19th century Half Moon pub in Warninglid for a beautifully presented Sussex platter which included a crisp mini south coast cod, chips, Henfield-based Springs smoked salmon with a zesty horseradish potato salad, a wonderfully rubbery High Weald Dairy halloumi and a smooth rhubarb and vanilla cheesecake with a fiery stem ginger ice cream.

With bellies full, our final stop of the day was a tour around the impressive and spotless Ridgeview Wine Estate which has grown from a plot of land and a retirement dream to a major player in English sparkling wines exporting to 15 countries and producing 250,000 bottles a year.

Five of the firms’ vintages offered a tastebud-catching variety of flavours and sensations from each different glass.

The bubbles went down smoothly accompanied by some fine Sussex cheese from Hove-based La Cave A Fromage including a creamy Golden Cross goat’s cheese and the Traditional Cheese Dairy’s Burwash Rose which defied its label of mild with an almost overpowering taste and smell.

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If you want to take your tastebuds on a journey, the Gourmet Bus Tour will be setting off again on Saturday, July 25 on a special Michelin-star tour.

And there is a Sussex Wine Tour taking in Bolney Wine Estate and Bluebell Vineyard Estate on Saturday, May 23.

Visit brightonfoodfestival.com.