Enthusiast…

Greyfriars Vineyard

region and the ideal geology for their English sparkling wine made in the champagne-style. Being chalky, forces the vines to struggle and yet counter-intuitively, magnificently enhances grape flavours.

The hills face South East which helps to capture and concentrate sunlight and ripen the grapes optimally, and also protects them from debilitating spring frosts. Their viticulture interventions with much hand-manicuring of the vines and grapes result in full –flavoured, ripe grapes. They are not interested in volume and focus solely on quality berries to produce their long-aged elegant vintage sparkling wines.

Denbies Wine Estate

The Denbies Estate, based in Dorking, Surrey, has been family owned and run since 1984. Denbies vineyard was planted in 1986, and since then has become one of the largest wine producers in the UK. Denbies core business is agriculture and they are pleased to be able to offer visitors an insight into wine production in the UK. Denbies wine now competes on an international level, including multiple gold awards for sparkling wine production, the first ever gold for an English rose wine and most recently an international gold for Denbies Noble Harvest Dessert wine. Surrey Hills is a beautiful and while you are visiting do take advantage of the surrounding areas, including 7 miles of public footpath which trail throughout the vineyard.

Located on the sunny south facing chalk slopes of the Hog’s Back at Puttenham, just outside Guildford in Surrey, they are producing a range of spectacular English Sparkling and Still Wines reflecting the unique local soil conditions, climate, and heritage of the Surrey North Downs. The current Greyfriars Vineyard was originally set up in 1989 and was one of the first in England to plant the traditional Champagne grape varieties (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier). 30 years later, in 2011, Mike and Hilary Wagstaff took over with the aim of expanding the vineyard to its current size of 40 acres and to produce stunning English Sparkling Wine, building a stateof-the-art winery complete with an underground chalk cave cellar to accommodate this growth. The vineyards are predominantly planted with the three classic Champagne varieties: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. However, they also have small plots of Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Blanc. The state-of-the-art tasting room was built over lockdown and opened in 2021. Passion throughout the winemaking and vineyard teams has led to a number of their wines gaining critical acclaim, winning a number of prizes in international competitions including the Decanter World Wine Awards.