Best vineyards to visit in England

[Bobodebo]

I always dreamed of visiting a vineyard in Napa Valley or New Zealand for my 40th birthday. Alas now it’s upon me, I can’t risk travelling abroad due to parent’s terminal cancer diagnosis (they will not be joining us, but I don’t want to travel).

Please hit me with your recommendations for the best vineyards in England (preference for the South East). Somewhere we can enjoy a leisurely experience, with nice food platters and beautiful views to accompany the wine. Ideally we’d get the train from London and a short taxi. Or perhaps stay overnight.

My preference is white and sparkling wine. My birthday is in June.

Thanks x

Chapel Down in Tenterden. Had a lovely tour there with friends a couple of years ago. Really interesting. Wine tasting was excellent.
www.chapeldown.com/pages/tours-experience

@DentonsFringeArnottsWaistcoat ooh I have actually heard of them, had a lovely Bacchus from Waitrose

Is it easy ish to get there on public transport or would you need to stay overnight nearby? There won’t be a designated driver!

Disclosure: I haven't actually been there but I often drive past this one when visiting family. It's near Alfriston in the South Downs which is a beautiful part of the world. There is a train station in Seaford about 4 miles away or I think you can stay at the vineyard. rathfinnyestate.com/

Wow @raspberryjamchicken thank you, this vineyard looks beautiful. The wine is in Michelin restaurants so must be good!

Chapel down also looks quite fancy and I know the wine is good.

Maybe I’ll have to visit both! I feel a vineyard tour coming on

Before posting this thread, I did search posts and there were no threads on U.K. vineyards. Apparently not such a popular pursuit amongst mumsnetters, but English wine does seem to be having a moment so imagine tours are getting more popular. Will start making enquiries this afternoon and confirm which I went for.

Denbys in dorking.

Again not been but we passed The Mount vineyard in a lovely village called Shoreham near Sevenoaks. Direct train link to London and quick. Looked fabulous

www.themountvineyard.co.uk/

Enjoy your birthday and hope your time with your ill parent is as good as it can be.

Denbies is beautiful and they do a tour inside plus a train round the grounds. I went for my 50th then had a meal in the restaurant there in the evening.

[quote DentonsFringeArnottsWaistcoat]Chapel Down in Tenterden. Had a lovely tour there with friends a couple of years ago. Really interesting. Wine tasting was excellent.
www.chapeldown.com/pages/tours-experience[/quote]
Another vote for Chapel Down and Tenterden is a lovely town as well (and has a steam railway too if that's your thing). Also not far from Rye, so makes a lovely weekend away.

Another option is Denbies at Dorking, and there is another one near Sevenoaks called Squerries, but I don't know what that one is like.

If you want a weekend in Devon, you could go to Old Walls at Bishopsteignton.

And there is a big one in Gloucestershire (Three Choirs).

But of all of them I'd go to Chapel Down.

Following - sounds like a lovely day out!

I was going to suggest the two already suggested on here plus a few others:
Chapel Down
Denbies
Hambleton
Bolney Estate
Nyetimber

I absolutely love a vineyard, lovely way to spend the day

Hope you find one you like and sorry about your parent

Somewhere we can enjoy a leisurely experience, with nice food platters and beautiful views to accompany the wine. Ideally we’d get the train from London and a short taxi. Or perhaps stay overnight.

The good news is this describes most of them

OP do you know if you want big or small? Mentioned by PP Chapel Down, Denby's, etc etc these are great if you want to experience the largest vineyards in the UK - they are professionally organised tours, Denby's have a little train to take you up to the top of the vineyard, there will be a shop at the end to buy etc. It won't feel personal and you will be one of many - maybe that's absolutely fine and what you're after.
On the other hand you can go to a much smaller vineyard where there will be less to see but you will likely get shown around by the owner, handful of people etc. Google is your friend but as a start somewhere like Tinwood, Castlewood, etc etc.
Or for somewhere in between try Gusbourne - it's still quite a pro enterprise but a bit smaller.
Loads of websites will point you in the right direction but plenty of even the tiniest places will have an online presence now. There are also a few places offering tours eg wine tours of Kent.
You will have a lovely time wherever you go I'm sure!

Denies ffs

DENBIES

Is it easy ish to get there on public transport or would you need to stay overnight nearby? There won’t be a designated driver

Ah I hadn't thought about driving. If you are using public transport Denbies is a good one as it is walkable from the local railway station(s) and it also has accommodation. Chapel Down is some way out of Tenterden but might be do-able by taxi from there. Old Walls would be an easy taxi ride from Teignmouth.

There is also this one, but again, it's not very accessible by public transport: www.vineyardsofhampshire.co.uk/hattingley-valley It's a lovely area though and the Swan Hotel in nearby Alresford would be a good place to stay.

Chapel Down - stay the town is pretty. Nyetimber, Hambledon or Ashling Park options too. Ashling near Chichester which is nice for food and visits.

Vineyard is nice at Denbies but the wine quality isn't all that compared to others. However it has the advantages of access and Dorking for stopping over.

Check out slso Hampshire Fizz Fest and Vineyards of Hampshire website.

If you do Chapel Farm (lovely), you could also tour a few more quite local to there - Terlingham, Biddenden, and there's also one in the Alkham Valley I think.

What a great idea for a birthday treat! Enjoy wherever you end up going

Chilford Hall in south Cambridgeshire is lovely

There's some great suggestions here for lovely English vineyards but have you thought about a visit to somewhere like Champagne? Reims is the capital of Champagne and is stunning. You can visit all the major houses Moet, Veuve etc and visit their cellars and then tour Epernay which has all the vineyards. Lots of lovely restaurants too. The countryside is stunningly beautiful too and it's nice and compact so you don't have to spend ages driving once there.

You could spend a happy long weekend driving via the the channel tunnel (3 hi
Ours drive from Calais) or there's often bus tours. Or get Eurostar to Lille and drive from there (2 hours) or fly to Charles de Gaulle and drive (2 ish hours).

I've been to Denbies a lot and the vineyard tour on the 4x4 is good but they've definitely downgraded the restaurant and tasting bit. It's more reminiscent of a BHS self serve cafe next to a gift shop filled with chintzy oven gloves and spoon rests rather than anything wine related and the tasting area always seemed to be rammed with people on a day out just wanting a free drink so we stopped going as it was just a bun fight.
Nyetimber never used to do tours but if they do I'd be there in a shit. Their sparkling wine is one of the best I've ever had (inc champagne!)

Not the right area, but sharpham winery in Devon is lovely. However, just looked and appears they have moved from near totnes (not too far i think). They do lovely cheese as well. Could possibly stay nearby and do taxis (would probably need to pre book taxis).

Thanks so much everyone, I’m overwhelmed by the replies! I never knew there were so many fab vineyards with tours in England. Spoilt for choice

Yeah it’s been pretty crap recently, like it has been for so many people. I think a lot of us could probably do with a day out in a lovely vineyard!

Seddlescombe vineyard, Robertsbridge,East Sussex. It's the old organic vineyard in the UK. tasting,your,lunch or afternoon tea

The Three Choirs vineyard in Newent (Gloucestershire) has nice lodge accommodation as well as a decent restaurant. DH was given a wine tasting tour and lunch for his 50th - was lovely!

@linerforlife I love this idea! Reckon I could hire a minibus with friends and pretend we’re in the film Wine Country with Maya Rudolph and Tina Fey

I do like nyetimber, have had it at wine fairs and it is just as good as champagne.