Hi All.

Can anyone recommend a good vineyard to visit this coming summer
within the UK?

I am setting up a web site about wine making and vine growing and
thought that a guide to recommened vineries would be a good idea,
along with the non-recommendations to the ones that don't cut muster.

The topics can include the usual, access, vine varieties, cafe's, do
they have a shop, parking, toilets, pricing, you know - you name it.

So if you have visited one and had to grumble, or perhaps one left you
with a smile on your face, then let me know.

Thanks, George (vines-make-wines.com)

On 22 Dec, 09:28, "Warts'n'all" > wrote:
> Hi All.
>
> Can anyone recommend a good vineyard to visit this coming summer
> within the UK?
>
> I am setting up a web site about wine making and vine growing and
> thought that a guide to recommened vineries would be a good idea,
> along with the non-recommendations to the ones that don't cut muster.
>
> The topics can include the usual, access, vine varieties, cafe's, do
> they have a shop, parking, toilets, pricing, you know - you name it.
>
> So if you have visited one and had to grumble, or perhaps one left you
> with a smile on your face, then let me know.
>
> Thanks, George (vines-make-wines.com)

Hi George,
I have posted a comment on your similar message on the UK gardening
site,Cheers,Michael

On Dec 22, 11:26 am, michael > wrote:
> On 22 Dec, 09:28, "Warts'n'all" > wrote:
>
>
>
> > Hi All.
>
> > Can anyone recommend a good vineyard to visit this coming summer
> > within the UK?
>
> > I am setting up a web site about wine making and vine growing and
> > thought that a guide to recommened vineries would be a good idea,
> > along with the non-recommendations to the ones that don't cut muster.
>
> > The topics can include the usual, access, vine varieties, cafe's, do
> > they have a shop, parking, toilets, pricing, you know - you name it.
>
> > So if you have visited one and had to grumble, or perhaps one left you
> > with a smile on your face, then let me know.
>
> > Thanks, George (vines-make-wines.com)
>
> Hi George,
> I have posted a comment on your similar message on the UK gardening
> site,Cheers,Michael

Hi, I have only been to one UK vineyard so far. I went very early
spring to Halfpenny Green vineyards in South Staffordshire. They have
a website at www.halfpenny-green-vineyards.co.uk

They had a nice seeming café and toilets with a farmshop room for
their wines and nice cheeses etc. Apparently they have won awards for
their wine. We tried their generic red and I tried a raspberry wine.
They will give you samples out the bottle in the shop. There weren't
any open when we went but they cheerfully cracked one open for us.
Well, at least I opened one for them as they had new corkscrews they
were finding tricky to use at the time heh heh.

The wines are good though it seemed that none of their wines were
single varietal which disappointed me slightly. Perhaps I was being
naive to expect that at this latitude. Anyway the red was light but
pleasant and we took abottle home - I think it was £7 ish. I had a
bottle of raspberry wine which was nice if a little sweet for my
tastes. I couldn't see any information as to whether they grow the
raspberries they use too. The staff were nice enough but didn't seem
totally on the ball.

There was little to show for the wine-production area, but I didnt
expect to find much at that time of year.

The vineyard itself was a reasonable size, but there were almost no
signs of grapes when I visited, so I walked the rows imagining making
stuffed vineleaves with all their vegetation and then had a bit of
cake and coffee at the café.

All in all, I can imagine spending a pleasant few hours here IN
SEASON, in a good year. I presume there are handy growers to talk to
about the process and specifics - also presumably a whole load of
grapes on their vines. I don't feel that they really sell themselves
'on-site' as well as they could because the area is nice and they are
on the way to having an interesting cluster of goods for sale.

Hope that is of some use.

Jim (UK)