About us
We are a couple living in the South East, and English wine is our weekends. This site is the list we wished existed when we started: which vineyards are worth the drive, which ones you can reach by train, and which tours are actually any good.
Why we built it
England now has hundreds of vineyards and a good number of them welcome visitors. Finding the right one is harder than it should be. Search results are full of pages that list the same handful of famous names, repeat opening times that changed two seasons ago, or quietly sell you a tour that no longer runs.
So we keep our own list. It covers the vineyards we would send a friend to, with the practical details you need before you set off: where it starts, whether you need to book, whether there is somewhere to eat, and how to get there without a car where that is possible.
How we check things
Being right matters more to us than being first, so the checking is the part we take seriously.
- Vineyard details come from the vineyard. Opening days, prices and what is on offer are taken from each vineyard’s own website, not from a directory or a press release. Every county page carries the date it was last checked.
- We recheck on a rotation. Each region comes round every few weeks, so an entry is never more than a season out of date. When something changes, we change it.
- Tours are checked every week against our booking partners’ live listings. Prices, ratings and meeting points come straight from those listings. If a tour is withdrawn, it comes off this site rather than sitting here waiting to disappoint someone.
- We say when we are unsure. If a vineyard’s own information is vague, we say so rather than filling the gap with a guess.
How we are paid, and what that does not buy
When you book a tour through one of our links, the company you book with pays us a small commission. It does not cost you anything: the price is the same as going direct, and we never add a booking fee.
Nobody pays us to be included, and nobody can. A vineyard cannot buy a place on these pages or a kinder write-up, and we list plenty of vineyards we earn nothing from, because leaving them out would make the list less useful. Where a tour is sold by more than one company we link to the one we would use ourselves.
We also think you should be able to tell when a link earns us something, so the booking links are marked and you always get a short page telling you where you are being sent before you go there.
What we are still working on
More counties, more vineyards you can stay at, and better answers to the questions we get asked most: which vineyards suit children, which welcome dogs, and which you can turn up to without booking.
Tell us when we are wrong
If a detail here is out of date, or your vineyard is missing, we would rather hear it than not. Email info@englishwinetours.com and we will put it right.
We also run Kent Wine Tours, which covers one county in more depth.