English Vine Tours

About

Enthusiastic wine experts Ben and Georgie think it’s time to celebrate English wine and the couple run leisurely tours through their neighbourhood vineyards in the South East, giving guests the chance to taste the local tipple and meet the makers in a relaxed and rural setting – only a short train ride, but a million miles, from the bustle of London.

What inspired you to start English Vine tours?

We (Ben and Georgie) were heavily involved in the wine industry as wine merchants. Ben in particular has a deep knowledge of wine making and the English wine industry. As huge fans of the wine tours available in the new world, we saw that nobody was doing the same in the UK despite the burgeoning number of great local vineyards in Kent and Sussex.

What part of your tours are you most proud of?

We offer a great day out in the country. Guests can come in via train, we’ll drive them around some beautiful rural locations, and they’ll get a great vineyard experience. It is nice being able to show them a very modern, professional vineyard with excellent visitor facilities and then for contrast a great rustic local vineyard; both producing excellent wines of course.

What gets you most excited when out with guests?

English wine is becoming a very serious match for more traditional growers – there are some fantastic wines available now and it is great seeing our customers enjoying them, often for the first time.

Food, accommodation and transport: Luxury or no-nonsense?

We tend to have lunch at quality local restaurants or vineyard restaurants; it is always excellent local food.

Paint a picture of both the ideal traveller and the nightmare traveller?

Wine tours are fairly accessible, as long as you have a taste for wine and food. The worst would be a know-it-all, but that never happens really.

How flexible is the pacing of your tours. What time do they usually start and finish?

Tours typically start around 9-9.30am and finish around 4-5pm. We only visit two vineyards in a day to make sure there is plenty of time to explore the vineyard, taste wine and have lunch at a relaxed pace

What role do you think tourism businesses should play in the environment and local communities?

Tourism is vital for the local economy particularly in rural areas. The English wine industry in particular faces an uphill task competing with better-known wine producing countries whose governments often heavily subsidise production. We are out there educating people about English wine. We now have a climate in the South East to match the Champagne region 10 years ago – and due to the small scale of production over here, there is much less intensive use of chemicals too. Best of all buying English wine means we aren’t shipping over bottles from far away.

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