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Vineyard guide · Newent
Visiting Three Choirs Vineyard
Three Choirs has been growing vines outside Newent since 1973, and with 75 acres, a restaurant and rooms among the vines it is set up for a long lunch or a night away. Go at the weekend if you want to taste without staying over, and make sure the Siegerrebe is in your glass.
Three Choirs at a glance
| Founded | First vines 1973, first vintage 1976 |
|---|---|
| Known for | Siegerrebe, from what it calls the largest planting of the grape in the country, and rooms overlooking the vines |
| Grapes | Seyval Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Schönburger, Reichensteiner and Siegerrebe, with Solaris, Madeleine Angevine and Phoenix |
| Open | Cellar door Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm, Sunday 9am to 4pm; hours may change in winter |
| Booking | Book weekend tastings through the restaurant; the guided tour is booked by phone on 01531 890223 |
| Tours from | £20 tasting, £54.95 guided tour with lunch |
| Food | Restaurant: dinner Wednesday to Sunday from 5.30pm to 8pm, weekend lunch, Sunday lunch to 3pm; closed Monday and Tuesday |
| Dogs | Well-behaved dogs on leads in the restaurant, not in the rooms or lodges |
| Stay | Vineyard View rooms beside the restaurant and lodges about 500m away among the vines |
| By train | Gloucester or Ledbury, then a taxi |
Checked on the vineyard’s own website in November 2026.
About Three Choirs
Alan McKechnie, a local wine merchant, planted the first vines in 1973 on his small fruit farm, then called Fairfield Fruit Farms. The 1976 vintage was the first, and the hot summer that year gave a big harvest that helped the farm grow. John Oldacre bought the business in 1984 and renamed it Three Choirs, partly for his links with the Three Choirs Festival, and it has largely stayed with his family since.
By the early 1990s the vineyard had reached 75 acres, which is about where it sits now. A new winery and visitor centre opened in 1990, eight bedrooms followed in 2000, and the lodges in 2008. In 2014 the company bought the Wickham vineyard in Hampshire. Over the last ten years or so, 50 acres of mostly German varieties planted for the English climate have been replaced with more traditional grapes.
Martin Fowke has made the wine here for more than 40 years, which must make him one of the longest-serving winemakers in the country. Three Choirs also made wine for other growers: Llanerch in the Vale of Glamorgan says its Cariad wines were made here from 1999.
The wines
Siegerrebe is the house speciality, an aromatic white from a grape few English vineyards grow at any scale, and it is the bottle we’d take home. Bacchus is the dry white, Classic Cuvée the sparkling, and Ravens Hill the red, alongside a Pinot Noir, a rosé, Willow Brook (a blend of Solaris, Siegerrebe and Reichensteiner with some Madeleine Angevine and Phoenix) and a late harvest wine. An orange wine comes and goes with the seasons, and there is a 10-year-old brandy. In the online shop the Siegerrebe and Bacchus are £16.51, the Classic Cuvée £19.76 and Ravens Hill £37.77, with 15% off 12 or more bottles and 20% off 24 or more. Where to buy them.
Tours and tastings at Three Choirs
Everything is at Baldwins Farm: the cellar door, the restaurant, the rooms and the winery. Non-residents can only taste at weekends, and the restaurant is shut on Mondays and Tuesdays, so a weekday visit from outside is mostly a shopping trip. For a couple or a small group, we’d book the Saturday or Sunday lunch tasting, which takes up to six. The guided tour suits a bigger party, since the vineyard describes it as a private tour for 10 to 20. If you are staying, the 4pm residents’ tour is the better deal. The vineyard suggests allowing three to four hours for a full visit. Dinner must be booked, and the restaurant takes groups of up to six. The car park is in full sun with no shade, so dogs should come inside with you rather than wait in the car.
| Experience | Price | Length | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-guided Wine Tasting with Lunch & Vineyard Walk Five 50ml wines including a sparkling, with tasting notes to take home, lunch in the restaurant and a walk round the vines with a leaflet. Groups of up to six. You book it as a restaurant table. | £20 per person for the tasting, plus lunch from the menu (about £45 a head on average) | Lunch service 12pm to 2pm, then the walk at your own pace | Saturdays and Sundays, all year |
| Guided Winery Tour, Tasting & Lunch A glass of sparkling wine on arrival, a look round the winery, a tasting of three still wines, then a cheeseboard with a glass of wine and a walk in the vines. The tours page describes it as a private tour for groups of 10 to 20. Call to book. | £54.95 per person | About 2 hours, 11.30am to 1.30pm | Wednesday to Sunday at 11.30am |
| Residents Guided Winery Tour with Wine Tasting For guests staying at the vineyard only. A guided winery visit, five wines with food pairings, and a walk in the vines. Booked with your room. | £38 per person | 1.5 hours, 4pm to 5.30pm | Wednesday to Sunday |
| Residents Self-guided Wine Tasting with Vineyard Walk For guests staying at the vineyard only. The same five wines and tasting notes as the weekend tasting, without lunch. | £20 per person | Between 2.30pm and 4.30pm | Daily, all year |
Book these on the Three Choirs website.
Buy Three Choirs 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.
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Getting there
Baldwins Farm is outside Newent in north-west Gloucestershire, and the vineyard says Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon and Birmingham are all under two hours away. It gives no public transport advice, so in practice you drive or take a taxi from Gloucester or Ledbury station. The what3words address for the entrance is rotate.treaties.eyeliner.
Make a day of it
Newent itself is a small market town a few minutes away. May Hill, the domed hill with a clump of pines on top, is close by for a walk, and Ledbury, with its black and white timbered streets, is a short drive north. For a second vineyard, Kingsthorne at Flaxley and Foxbury Fields at Bromsberrow are both within easy reach.
See every vineyard you can visit in our Cotswolds and West Midlands directory. Our other Cotswolds and West Midlands vineyard guides: Halfpenny Green, Astley.
Questions people ask
Can you taste at Three Choirs without staying?
Yes, but only at weekends. The self-guided tasting with lunch runs on Saturdays and Sundays from 12pm to 2pm, and the guided tour is for groups of 10 to 20 booked by phone. Daily tastings are for residents.
Is Three Choirs dog friendly?
Partly. Well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome in the restaurant, but not in the rooms or lodges. Don’t leave a dog in the car, as the car park has no shade.
What is the cancellation policy for rooms?
Cancel or change at least 96 hours ahead for a full refund or a free change. Later than that, one night’s full room charge applies.