The 11 Best English Pinot Noirs

Pinot Noir is the trickiest grape grown in England. Thin-skinned, early-ripening and desperate for a warmth it rarely gets here, most of it goes into sparkling wine blends rather than bottled on its own. When it is bottled alone, the results range from light and cherry-bright to seriously structured, oak-aged wines built to age. This guide covers eleven, from a £27.50 Devon red to a £45 bottle sold only through a Devon restaurant and hotel, and I've tasted four of them myself. A few of these are made in tiny volumes, so some are already sold out or sold by phone rather than online. The vineyards behind them are still worth tracking down.

English Pinot Noirs at a glance

Why English Pinot Noir is so hard to get right

Pinot Noir needs a growing season just warm enough to build real colour and tannin into its thin skins, but not so warm that it loses the acidity and perfume that make the grape worth growing in the first place. Burgundy's Côte d'Or has spent centuries chasing that balance, and England is cooler and wetter still. Most Pinot Noir planted here goes into sparkling wine, where high natural acidity is an asset and full ripeness beside the point. A still red asks for a warm site and a kind vintage, which is why the same names keep cropping up in the table above. Essex's Crouch Valley, with its free-draining gravel and a noticeably warmer microclimate than most of southern England, supplies the fruit behind several of these wines, Lyme Bay's included. For more on the grape generally, see our Pinot Noir grape guide.

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What English Pinot Noir tastes like

Expect a lighter body than Pinot Noir from warmer regions, closer to a Burgundian village wine than anything from Central Otago. Red fruit leads: cherry, redcurrant, cranberry, sometimes raspberry, often with a savoury, earthy edge on the more serious bottlings. Oak, where it's used, tends to be restrained, a portion of new French barriques for structure and spice rather than to cover the fruit. Acidity stays high even in riper years, which is what gives these wines their lift and, on the best examples, real ageing potential.

English Pinot Noirs I've tasted

Simpsons Wine Estate

Location: Barham, near Canterbury, Kent

I tried Rabbit Hole at a trade tasting, and it's dark and brooding rather than delicate: cassis and cocoa stacked up against Black Forest gateau, with sandalwood and vanilla holding it together through the finish. The 2024 vintage won the WineGB 2026 trophy for Best Still Pinot Noir, following a run of silvers in the vintages before it.

Wine: Rabbit Hole Pinot Noir 2024, £32
Buy: simpsonswine.com

Charles Palmer Vineyards

Location: Winchelsea, East Sussex

Charles Palmer's Still Pinot Noir doesn't hide behind subtlety: damson and black cherry with a peppery cranberry snap, and enough orange zest on the nose to remind you it's still a cool-climate wine underneath the ripeness. The 2022 vintage picked up silver at Decanter 2026 with 90 points.

Wine: Still Pinot Noir 2022, £32
Buy: charlespalmer-vineyards.co.uk

White Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is a black grape, but its juice runs clear. Press it gently and pull it off the skins before they've had time to bleed in any colour, and the result is a white or barely-blushed wine instead of a red, the same principle behind Champagne's blanc de noirs. It's a practical option in a marginal climate too: a vintage that hasn't ripened enough for a structured red can still make a good white or sparkling wine from the same grapes.

Oastbrook Estate

Location: Staplecross, East Sussex

Pressed off the skins before the colour has a chance to develop, Oastbrook's White Pinot Noir keeps just a whisper of pink-gold and a red-fruit character that gives away its black-grape origins: strawberry and red cherry, a lift of orange blossom, and a crack of black pepper to keep the crisp acidity honest. The 2023 vintage won silver at WineGB 2025 with 91 points.

Wine: White Pinot Noir (2023 vintage reviewed; the current release is 2025)
Buy: oastbrook.com

Camel Valley

Location: Nanstallon, near Bodmin, Cornwall

Camel Valley's White Pinot Noir Brut is a blanc de noirs in the classic sense: black Pinot Noir grapes pressed and vinified as if they were white, which is where the pearlescent, barely-blushed colour comes from. Strawberry and white blossom on the nose, with a needle of white pepper. The critic Tim Atkin once called an earlier vintage's finish "as long as an airport runway" (his note was on the 2005), and the reputation has held up since. I brought a bottle to a Curious Vines tasting and it went down just as well with that room. The 2017 vintage won gold at WineGB 2022.

Wine: White Pinot Noir Brut 2023, £39.95
Buy: camelvalley.com

More English Pinot Noirs worth tracking down

Blackbook Winery

Location: Battersea, London

Nightjar is Blackbook's Pinot Noir from Clayhill Vineyard in Essex's Crouch Valley. The 2022 won the WineGB 2025 trophies for Best Pinot Noir and Best Red with 96 points, and a magnum of it is £65. The 2024 on sale now was fermented naturally in small open-top fermenters, aged in Burgundy oak and bottled unfined and unfiltered, so it may throw sediment. Blackbook's notes list bright ripe red fruit, supple tannins and gentle black pepper, and suggest drinking it between 2027 and 2035. It is £30.

Visit: A 75-minute guided tour and tasting of four wines is £25 and runs most Saturday afternoons all year, booking required. A walk-in summer wine bar opens Fridays 4 to 9 and Saturdays 5.30 to 9.30 from May to September.

Wine: Nightjar Pinot Noir 2024, £30
Buy: blackbookwinery.com

Gusbourne

Location: Appledore, Kent

Gusbourne's Pinot Noir is the most decorated wine on this list. The 2022 vintage won a trophy at the International Wine Challenge 2024, and the 2020 vintage did the same at WineGB 2022. It's currently sold out direct from the winery, which tends to happen with small runs of a wine this well regarded. Join the mailing list for the next release.

Wine: Pinot Noir 2022 (currently sold out)
Buy: gusbourne.com

Lyme Bay Winery

Location: Shute, near Axminster, Devon

Lyme Bay is a Devon winery, but like their Chardonnay, the Pinot Noir fruit is grown in Essex's Crouch Valley. The 2021 vintage won a trophy at the International Wine Challenge 2025 and gold at WineGB 2024, the same kind of multi-body run that put their Chardonnay on the map.

Wine: Pinot Noir 2024, £29.99
Buy: lymebaywinery.co.uk

Lympstone Manor

Location: Exmouth, Devon

Triassic is grown on the estate around Michael Caines' restaurant and hotel, and aged for up to 18 months in French oak. The first release, the 2020 vintage, won a trophy at the International Wine Challenge 2023. It's sold direct through the estate rather than in shops.

Wine: Triassic Pinot Noir 2024, £45
Buy: lympstonemanorestate.co.uk

Sandridge Barton

Location: Ashprington, near Totnes, Devon

East Field is Sandridge Barton's single-vineyard bottling, and it won gold at WineGB 2024. The 2020 vintage also picked up gold at WineGB 2023, so it's had more than one good year.

Wine: East Field Pinot Noir 2022, £33
Buy: shop.sandridgebarton.com

Wythall Estate Vineyard

Location: Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire

Wythall only makes Pinot Noir in its best years. The wine doesn't have an online shop; orders go through a phone call or email, with free local delivery on six bottles or more within 15 miles. The 2019 vintage won gold at the Independent English Wine Awards 2022, and the 2023 scored 94 points at WineGB 2025.

Wine: Pinot Noir Reserve 2023
Buy: call 01989 566868 or email [email protected]

Ashling Park Estate

Location: Thakeham, West Sussex

Estate Selection is made from what Ashling Park calls its best red wine fruit of the year, and the 2022 vintage was named Best Still Pinot Noir at WineGB 2024.

Wine: Estate Selection Pinot Noir 2022, £29.50
Buy: ashlingpark.co.uk

Each vineyard's page on Vinebound explains how to visit, so check there before you travel. You can also browse the full vineyard finder, or read our guide to English wine grape varieties.