Denbies Wine Estate, Dorking, Surrey, England Enter
When was it built and who built it?
Has it’s size and/or wines ever made it famous?
How come the grapes grow so well here?
How many vines grow at Denbies?
How big is it and how much of the estate is under vine?
Denbies Please click a question!
When was it built and who built it? Please click on the house in the photograph below.
The house was built some time from 18301840 by Thomas Cubitt. The first official owner was John Denby (hence the name) in 1555. Most of the house was destroyed by a fire in 1951. All that is left now is the laundry. This building is the laundry! You can really see that nothing is small!
How come the grapes grow so well here?
ď‚–
ď‚™ Denbies is in a microclimate between two hills and also in a closed off dell, making it warmer and drier which is good for grapes. The vines grow on a south facing slope where they get lots of sun. Also, Denbies is on limestone, which is permeable.
Has it’s size and/or wines ever made it famous?
Yes, it is the largest wine estate in England and one of the largest privately owned in Europe! One of their rosé wines was entered into a competition in France and won! They had 9,000 bottles (a year’s supply) ready to be sold and the day they won they sold out! This is a tractor. It really shows the size of Denbies. The building is the winery and visitor centre.
How big is it and how much of the estate is under vine?
Denbies covers 265 acres of land. The vines cover only ¼ of the estate and the other ¾ are forest. You can see the vines, forest and (if you zoom right in on the clearing) the outdoor car-train!
How many vines grow at Denbies? Denbies is very big but only ¼ of it is covered by vines. However, 300,000 vines grow in the ¼ they are given which really gives you an idea of the scale of Denbies.
House before it was burnt down ď‚– ď‚™ In this picture you can see two ladies standing but the door and they really give you an idea of the size of the house.