The days when English wines weren’t highly regarded are gone

The South Downs are under your feet. Before you, the shimmering greens and yellows of pasture and fields lead the eye down to the Cuckmere Haven where the English Channel glitters in the June light. This is a land of brown hares, round-headed rampions, skylarks — and vines.

Welcome to Rathfinny Estate. When the one-time arable farm was bought by former hedge fund manager Mark Driver and his wife Sarah in 2010 I was taken aback by the ambitious scale of their plans to transform the 650-acre site into the largest single-estate vineyard in the United Kingdom, producing around one million bottles of sparkling wine a year.

I now realise that I under-estimated the confidence of the Drivers. Rathfinny is not simply a wine producer. The estate has been conceived as a contemporary luxury brand. It’s a landmark: proprietors who felt English wine had enough traction to invest heavily in tourism from the start. And the Drivers have invested… big-time.

Like the best estates in South Africa (apparently an inspiration), Rathfinny has got it all. There’s a swishy, RIBA-nominated winery with a green roof; converted barns to stay in; popup restaurant events at which wines from other English producers are served; Sunday lunches that sell out within three hours of the dates being released; a walking trail; afternoon tea and lunch tours; even a cellar door, called The Gun Room (because it was said to have been the gun store for the Duke of Wellington), where visitors can drop by for tastings.

This is aspirational Soho House meets English wine territory and it attracts 35,000 people a year — all the more remarkable given that Rathfinny hasn’t really even released a wine yet. The first Rathfinny sparkling — the raison d’être of the whole place — will be out in 2018; until then there are small quantities of a still white made simply so as to have something to show to those who ask.

“Interest in wine tourism is growing significantly,” says Julia Trustram Eve of English Wine Producers. “I believe it’s bound in with the interest in local food and regional tourism. People hear about the wine and they want the experience, the connection.”

Some producers are old hands at tastings. The warm sun terrace at Camel Valley near Bodmin in Cornwall is a much-loved institution of the English wine scene. Former RAF pilot Bob Lindo and his family have been pouring their multi-award-winning wine here since 1992. “And I’ve been doing the Grand Tour almost every Wednesday myself since 1992, because I enjoy it too,” says Bob. Chapel Down in Kent also has a long

English Wine Producers: This organisation represents about 80 per cent of the wines made in England. Use the “find a vineyard” feature on its website to hunt for vineyards by county or look up “Vineyard Tours” to find tour operators who can help arrange a visit. The English Wine Producers website also has information on the English wine industry as a whole.

history of tourism being integral to its culture. Its cellar door in Tenterden, Kent, does a roaring trade, you can book lunch at its Swan restaurant which has a Michelin bib gourmand; or take a guided tour of the vineyards.

English wine is getting more serious. Chapel Down recently released a £100 cuvée — the most expensive wine made in this country to date. And Camel Valley in Cornwall has just secured the country’s first singlevineyard protected designated origin (PDO) for its Darnibole vineyard.

All of this is fuelling our thirst for finding out more. Self-catering company, cottages.com, reports that properties on vineyards and wineries around England have a 52 per cent higher booking rate than those elsewhere. And several small startups offering English vineyard tours are either that sold out or inundated with requests.

More than 100 UK vineyards now open their doors to the public, albeit you often have to book by appointment. More producers are investing in tourism as well as in wine. Gusbourne, near Appledore in Kent, has built a visitor centre and shop that will open later this year. And Simpsons Wine Estate, also in Kent, is building a visitor centre that will have a helter-skelter to slide people back down into the winery. “People are just so enthusiastic when I talk to them about it,” says owner Charles Simpson.

I recommend you take some time to wander around some English vineyards this summer. Tasting wine on home soil has become such a popular activity that, for the first time this year, the International Wine Challenge has sent mystery shoppers around cellar doors up and down the country and awarded medals to those who offer the best experience. Six came away with golds: Rathfinny Wine Estate, Bolney Wine Estate, Hush Heath, West Street Vineyard, High Clandon and Denbies.

Shirley Valentine said: “I’d like to drink a glass of wine in a country where the grape is grown.” But now that place isn’t a table by the sea in Greece, it’s a bench overlooking an expanse of green in a beautiful corner of England.

The Wine & Spirit Trade Association: This body publishes a downloadable English Wine Trail that takes in tradi-

If you fancy three days cycling across the High Weald and East Sussex, with someone else carrying your luggage, wine tastings thrown in, picnics laid on, and nights under canvas, then Wine Rides can fix that for you. The company says: “Yes, it is hilly but our route is much less hilly than most cycling locations in Europe.”The website includes answers to important questions

Dotted across the south of England are places where wine lovers can get a close-up look at the best of British.

Stay the night in a vineyard cabin Tinwood Estate:

Close to Goodwood and on the edge of the South Downs, Tinwood Estate was planted in 2007. You can book a tour for £15, or stay the night in one of three cabins whose huge glass windows look across the vineyards towards the Sussex sunset.

Good for parties or weddings Hambledon:

Hambledon is a sparkling wine specialist situated in a beautiful spot in Hampshire. The

I’ve had friends emailing me begging me to get them into award-winning Nyetimber (“We’ ll pay, we’ ll pay, but we can’t GET TICKETS”).

Nyetimber Manor was once the home of Henry VIII’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, and the vineyard lets visitors in just two weekends a year, for a tour and tasting with winemaker Cherie Spriggs.

This year’s dates are next weekend (June 10-11) and July 1-2. Tickets, which are redeemable against purchase of a case of Nyetimber, cost £28 per person.

Ihonestlydon’tthinkNyetimber makesaduffwine.IlovetheClassic CuvéeMVEngland,madefromchardonnayandpinotnoir.

Nyetimber, Sussex: