Local Award-Winning Wines



Walking through Denbies Vineyard

I have visited a number of wineries and vineyards but very few in the UK and surprisingly not one of the large ones right on my doorstep in Surrey, England. Denbies in Dorking, Surrey can lay claim to being the largest vineyard in the UK at 265 acres and is also one of the largest privately owned vineyards in Europe. Its wines have won many awards over the years and currently they are proud to have won the top prize for a Rosé at the 2011 International Wine Challenge beating 300 other Rosé wines from around the World. Like many southern England vineyards they are also famous for their increasingly good sparkling wines that they claim are as good as the best in the World.

Vistors Centre and Train

Denbies is not just an award winning winery and vineyard; it is also a tourist attraction in its own right. We visited them yesterday and were impressed by their slick organisation and the investment they had made to be a top tourist destination. First we took their vineyard train tour priced at £5.50 per person and had a 45 minute tour of the vineyard; alternatively, as there are 7 miles of public footpaths through the vineyard including the North Downs Way, you could do this for free on foot, but then you miss out on the commentary. Why not do both and spend an enjoyable day-out? There are lots of lovely photo opportunities for taking pictures of the grapes on the vines at this time of year and I can imagine this must be a beautiful photography location in autumn as well.

Second, we purchased one of their indoor tours which make this a good tourist destination on a rainy day, although we were blessed with fine weather. The indoor tour includes an incredible 360° circular cinema virtual vineyard tour, a quick whizz around the winery on their indoor train, and of course a cellar tasting of three of their wines. We took the Sparkling wine option and thus our indoor tour was priced at £12 per person.

Beautiful View from the Vineyard Train

Third, you get a chance to visit their lovely restaurant and shop in the visitor centre. You can also taste wines in their shop and of course buy them and there is usually a 10% discount for those who have been on the tour. Denbies sell about 65% of their wines through their shop in the visitors centre and also sell on line. Some supermarkets such as Waitriose also stock their wines. Currently, Denbies does not export their wines.

Fourthly, there is a farm shop selling organic and local produce and also a small garden centre type shop where you can even buy you own vine – fancy growing Chardonnay in your own back garden? There is a large purpose built car park and an area to picnic.

Sparkling

Our overall opinion on the tourist experience is that it is very good, well worth a visit. They are kid friendly and make a fuss of them on the vineyard tour. The train rides make it good for people with walking disabilities – it helped me on this visit as I am sporting an injury to my knees at present. Tasting was good but slightly confusing as they have three different experiences all going on at the same time (standard, sparkling and food and wine).

Our overall opinion on the wines we tasted was again very good, the sparkling wines were lovely. I appreciated the fact that they were only about 12% abv. First we tasted the Whitedowns which is made with 100% Seyval Blanc – nice, fruity and light. Second we tasted the Pinot Noir Rosé Cuvée 2007 which was pleasant, very dry and had hints of strawberry. Finally, we tasted the 2006 Greenfields which is made from the typical champagne grapes and had an excellent length and nice citrussy flavour – it was good enough for us to buy some in the shop (good value on the day we went, as this week there is 25% off sparkling wines)

Whites

They grow a surprisingly large variety of grape varieties in the vineyard including well known French varieties such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. However, German varieties such as Muller Thurgau, Schonburger and Dornfelder make up much of the vineyard. Their award winning rosé is made with Rondo grapes which is a red fleshed varietal grown in Northern Europe including Denmark and is popular with wine growers due to its disease resistance, early ripening and the colour it gives to the wine. It is becoming increasingly grown in the UK and makes good rosé and sometimes even gold award winning rosé as with Denbies who grew only a small amount and thus have sold out very quickly (although is still available in their shop as part of a mixed case).

The terroir is ideal for wine growing; the sub-soil being chalk, the aspect being mainly south facing slopes and the location being in a closed valley that protects the vines from the wind. It is thus, perhaps, surprising that the first vines were only planted in 1986, although the Romans had planted vineyards not very far from here much earlier.

Award Winner

Their range of wines is rather large; they do the full gamut from red, white and rosé to sparkling. Prices start from just under £8 for some of their whites and go up to over £20 for their top sparkling wines. They sell via mail order so visit their excellent and informative website at www.denbies.co.uk. Best of all pay them a visit on the northbound A24 between Dorking and Mickleham- they are open 7 days a week all year long apart from Christmas, Boxing Day and New Years Day. I think this is an excellent local family business with good conservationist principles that is worth supporting.

As a footnote, we have tasted the award winning Chalk Ridge 2010 Rosé and it is superb, easily the best rosé we have tasted all summer - lets hope they plant more of the Rondo grape in future.

Vines alongside the A24 in Surrey

Inside the Winery

Grapes in August

Vineyard Map

View of the Vineyard from the North Downs Way