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Vineyard guide · Rodmell
Visiting Breaky Bottom
Breaky Bottom is one of England’s oldest vineyards, six acres in a dry chalk valley of the South Downs near Lewes, and each of its sparkling wines is named after a person. There are no tours, but you can visit by appointment to buy and collect wine, at the end of a mile and a half of farm track.
Breaky Bottom at a glance
| Founded | Planted 1974 |
|---|---|
| Known for | Traditional method sparkling wine, including rare all-Seyval Blanc cuvées |
| Awards | IWC Gold Medal (1993) for the 1990 Seyval Blanc; Peter Hall was the first English winemaker to receive the Diploma of Honour from the Fédération Internationale des Confréries Bachiques (2025) |
| Grapes | Seyval Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier |
| Open | By appointment only, to buy and collect wine |
| Booking | Book an appointment through the website form or by phone |
| Tours from | No tours or tastings |
| Food | None |
Checked on the vineyard’s own website in November 2026.
About Breaky Bottom
The Hall family were farming pigs in this fold of the Downs from 1968 and planted the vineyard in 1974, on the same chalk that runs under the Channel to Champagne. Peter Hall and his wife Christine were among the first people to take English wine seriously. Early on they grew Seyval Blanc and Müller-Thurgau and made still whites, and the 1990 Seyval Blanc won a gold medal at the International Wine Challenge in 1993.
The first sparkling wine came in 1995, made entirely from Seyval Blanc, and was released in 2000 as the Millennium Cuvée Maman Mercier, after Peter’s mother. That started the habit of naming every cuvée after someone: the wood engraver Reynolds Stone, who drew the original label, the cartoonist Gerard Hoffnung, the chemist Sir Harry Kroto, poets, neighbours and the people who helped plant the vines. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier went in during 2002 and 2004, and the estate has made only sparkling wine since. The critic Andrew Jefford called Peter Hall the father of the contemporary English wine scene. Breaky Bottom is still run by the family.
The vineyard is small, six acres of free-draining chalk loam and flint, about two miles from the sea. The valley shelters it from coastal winds and cuts the risk of spring frost, and sheep graze the steep banks around it.
The wines
Every wine is traditional method sparkling, and they come in two families. The Seyval Blanc cuvées are the unusual ones, because few producers anywhere make serious sparkling wine from Seyval, and Breaky Bottom has been doing it since 1995. The Chardonnay and Pinot cuvées are the more familiar style. Current releases run back to 2014, with limited allocation wines from 2009, 2010 and 2011. If you want one case to understand the place, the mixed case of six is the sensible buy. Where to buy them.
Tours and tastings at Breaky Bottom
This is a place for people who already know the wines, or want to. There is no shop to wander into and nothing to do without an appointment. What you get is the drive down a 1.5-mile track over the Downs into a valley with nothing else in it, which is reason enough for some. The track is rough in places but normally fine in an ordinary car. Most wines are sold in cases of six, with taster cases of three, and the older cuvées are on limited allocation of a few cases per customer.
| Experience | Price | Length | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cellar door collection Breaky Bottom does not run tours or tastings at the moment, but will see people who want to buy and collect wine. Book through the website form or by phone. | Wine sold by the case of six, from £234 | – | By appointment only |
Book these on the Breaky Bottom website.
Buy Breaky Bottom wines
None of our wine partners has these wines in stock this week. The vineyard sells them in its own shop, or see our pick of English wines to buy online.
Getting there
Turn off the C7 Lewes to Newhaven road at Northease Farm and follow the track for about a mile and a half over the Downs. Lewes is the nearest town. On foot or by bike, the South Downs Way passes less than half a mile away, though you still need an appointment.
Make a day of it
Rodmell has Monk’s House, Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s country home, now run by the National Trust. Lewes is a few miles north, with its castle and Harvey’s brewery. Rathfinny, near Alfriston, is the nearby vineyard to visit if you want a tour and lunch on the same day.
See every vineyard you can visit in our Sussex directory. Our other Sussex vineyard guides: Rathfinny, Court Garden, Bolney, Wiston, Nyetimber, Henners, Artelium, Ashling Park, Tinwood, Sedlescombe Organic, Roebuck, Ridgeview, Bluebell Vineyard, Kingscote, Tillingham, Oxney Organic.
Questions people ask
Can I do a tasting at Breaky Bottom?
Not at the moment. The estate is not offering tours or tastings, only appointments to buy and collect wine.
Can I drive down the track?
Yes. It is unmade in places, but the estate says it is normally fine by car.