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

OP if you want Nyetimber, they only do limited tours each year and the dates for this summer are released on Thursday, coincidentally! So get yourself on their mailing list if that's of interest.

llanerch.co.uk/

This one is lovely if you want to come to Wales

Gusbourne - get the hamper too, their quince jelly is amazing!

Holmfirth Vineyard

Who knew England was so blessed with such wonderful vineyards?! Those views at Holmfirth are fabulous looks like Northern Italy.

Thanks for the heads up about Nyetimber @Cavagirl

I’m honestly contemplating visiting more than one of these. Still far cheaper than a trip to NZ or even Europe

I've never been on a tour, but my favourite sparking English wine is tinwood, very closely followed by ridgeview. So either of them would win my vote!
Chichester or Brighton way

Those views at Holmfirth are fabulous looks like Northern Italy.

It was such a beautiful day when we went. I took those pictures from the restaurant balcony.

Another vote for Three Choirs!

@Topbird29

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).

I had forgotten about that one - this is its new location: sandridgebarton.com/

@BonnyandPoppy

llanerch.co.uk/

This one is lovely if you want to come to Wales

I was also coming back to recommend this one, as we stayed there back in 2014. Again, not that easy by public transport, but you could get a taxi from Cardiff.

Come to the south downs - you could do a lovely vineyard tour. We have half a dozen within a 20 minute drive of us. Oh and you can add in a fatastic gin distillery - Slake

Oh one other suggestion, if you wanted to go away but not away - La Mare on Jersey! It has a nice cafe/restaurant and you can get the bus there from St Helier or wherever you'd be staying.

www.lamarewineestate.com/

Squerryes in Westerham, Kent is lovely. Added bonus of having Westerham Brewery on the same site.

@shanghaismog

Squerryes in Westerham, Kent is lovely. Added bonus of having Westerham Brewery on the same site.

and a parkrun! (so does Denbies - I've done that one but Squerryes is a bit far from me to get to for 9am)

Wiston Estate in West Sussex. They have opened a new restaurant (haven’t been yet)

www.wistonestate.com/

@OldTinHat great minds!

OP if you decide to do the South Downs ones, there’s a new Pig hotel thats opened in the area which looks fab.

Coming on to say Llanerch too - you can stay overnight there and it’s not that far from Cardiff station in a taxi

I live in the South Downs and am surrounded by lovely vineyards. I would also recommend Tinwood, Nyetimber and Wiston. A PP suggested The Pig Hotel which is just outside Arundel and it is in a beautiful setting. They are planting their own vineyards to supply all their hotels with English Sparkling wine. Wherever you choose OP I hope you have a lovely time.

So glad you asked!
We went on a tour to Albourne and Ridgeview with
https://greatbritishwinetours.co.uk
and it was lovely, very much recommend. They did a picnic lunch and tasting too. Pick up and drop off Brighton station. Those two vineyards were a good contrast of boutique and industrial.

Also love Wiston and as PP mentioned they have a new restaurant. We volunteered at the harvest, was a good day out.

Tillingham near Rye is a gorgeous place to stay but really didn't like the wine, made using an interesting technique of burying it in giant pots.

Wiston's in late October

We went to Rathfinnies. Lovely setting and rooms. We ate at Flint Barns which didn’t feel very special, should have eaten at the other one. I didn’t love the wine unfortunately and it was expensive and there was lots not available in the restaurant oddly.

We are going to Denbies next, fingers crossed.

We have also been to Biddenden and ate and stayed at The West House which was fabulous.

So sorry to hijack the OP’s thread but I don’t drink alcohol however vineyards seems so gorgeous! I would love to see one in person. Is it worth it to visit even if you don’t drink?

@Hairbrush123 When we went to the one in Holmfirth I was driving, so I didn't drink any alcohol. You can do the vineyard tour with wine tasting or you can just book a meal at the restaurant and enjoy good food with amazing views.

They do afternoon tea as well as lunch and dinner.

My local vineyard is flintvineyard.com/
They have tours and lunches sourced from a 15 mile radius. It's a short taxi ride from Beccles (East Suffolk train line).
Their Charmat is one of the few wines my DH drinks - we only have it on high days & holy days!

There's a few down here in the sw and also cider tours, you can do multiple paces as a package transport included, or could precovid, not seem the adverts recently