Why it matters
The producer
Dermot and Ana Sugrue make wines that begin in Sussex vineyards but do not stay inside one formula. The Trouble With Dreams established the project as a sparkling-wine producer with its 2009 vintage; Rock Story MV and the Bee Tree wines extend that work across different sites and vintages, while Bonkers V2 puts still Chardonnay through a markedly different cellar route.
Ana joined full-time in 2021 as fellow winemaker and sales director after teaching winemaking at Plumpton College and working in wineries on four continents. Her arrival brought another working winemaker into a project whose bottles already depended on separate Sussex sites, reserve wines and long cellar decisions.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Sugrue South Downs farms five vineyards across East and West Sussex. Rather than presenting one village as the whole story, the wines draw material from a spread of sites; a long-term rental expanded the vineyard area from three to 11 hectares. That wider footprint matters most in bottles such as Rock Story MV, where several harvests are assembled, and in Bee Tree wines, where a vineyard name narrows attention to one place.
England is the country on the label; Sussex is the practical frame for the range. The sparkling wines use the slow work of reserve wine and lees ageing to build body and finish, while Bonkers V2 shows that the same regional base can also carry a still, oak-fermented Chardonnay.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The cellar work is clearest where the range departs from a single-vintage sparkling model. Rock Story MV combines six vintages, from 2011 through 2022, with 40% reserve wine and lees ageing. Reserve components can add depth to the mid-palate, while lees ageing contributes a broader mousse and savoury texture beyond newly bottled fruit.
Bonkers V2 takes still Chardonnay through oak fermentation, flor ageing, controlled oxidation and vintage blending. Those choices move the wine away from a simple fresh-fruit Chardonnay profile: oak and oxygen bring savoury notes and fuller texture, while flor ageing adds another layer of yeast-derived character.
Wines to know
The range in view
The Trouble With Dreams is the historical starting point: a 2009 sparkling wine that became the producer’s first release. Rock Story MV is the multi-vintage sparkling bottle, built from six English vintages and a substantial reserve-wine share; its role is continuity of texture and dry, lees-shaped structure across more than one harvest.
Bee Tree Blanc de Noir 2021 and Bee Tree Pinot Meunier Rosé Brut 2019 bring the range closer to a named vineyard. The Blanc de Noir is a sparkling wine from dark-skinned grapes made in a white-wine style, while the Pinot Meunier rosé carries its grape in the name and its colour in the glass. Bonkers V2 stands apart as still Chardonnay, with oak, flor and controlled oxidation creating a more savoury, textural wine than the sparkling bottles.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with Rock Story MV. It is a multi-vintage English sparkling wine assembled from six vintages between 2011 and 2022, with 40% reserve wine and lees ageing. Its mousse, dry structure and savoury texture bring together the producer’s interest in sparkling wine, cellar ageing and blending across harvests without narrowing the picture to one vineyard or one year.