10 of the Best English Red Wines
14 Oct 2026 · By Stephen Pritchard in Wine Guides
English red wine is a small part of the industry: light, red-fruited, high in acidity and often best served a little cool. These ten are Vinebound's picks, from a £16.95 Dornfelder to a £32 Pinot Noir, chosen from our own favourites, critic acclaim and award wins since 2025. Three are Pinot Noir, the grape most often rewarded here, and seven are other grapes or blends: Cabernet Jura, Cabaret Noir, Gamay, two Dornfelders, a Dornfelder-Pinotin blend and a Pinot Noir-Divico reserve.
Best English red wines: our top picks
- Most awarded: Simpsons Rabbit Hole Pinot Noir 2024, £32. It won the WineGB 2026 trophy for Best Still Pinot Noir.
- Best value: Biddenden Gribble Bridge Dornfelder 2025, £16.95, and its Gamay Noir 2025 at £22.50.
- Something different: Mallard Point Crossing Lines Cabernet Jura 2025, £25, or Winbirri Signature 2021, a barrel-aged Dornfelder sold in threes at £55.50, the equivalent of £18.50 a bottle.
English red wine grapes explained
Pinot Noir is by far the most planted red grape in England, at about 30% of all vines, grown as Pinot Noir itself and as Pinot Noir Précoce, the early-ripening form. Most of it goes into sparkling wine, so a still red is a different use for it. Our best English Pinot Noirs guide covers ten more.
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The others in this guide are newer to most drinkers. Dornfelder makes a light, raspberry-fruited red, and Divico is the hybrid grape that Warehorne blends with Pinot Noir. Cabaret Noir is a PIWI grape, bred for disease resistance, that Abingworth says has similarities to Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Cabernet Jura is another hybrid, which Mallard Point grows at 52 degrees north in Lincolnshire. Pinotin is the other half of Trevibban Mill's Cicero blend. Gamay, the Beaujolais grape, is rare in England: Biddenden has made it in just seven vintages since planting it in 1985.
English Pinot Noir
Simpsons: Rabbit Hole Pinot Noir 2024
Location: Barham, near Canterbury, Kent
The 2024 won the WineGB 2026 trophy for Best Still Pinot Noir. It is a Vinebound favourite, with a little more body and more intensity of flavour. It is £32 a bottle, with a discount on a case.
Visit: cellar door purchases and click-and-collect during office hours, 9 to 5. Tasting experiences and the vineyard and winery tours (Saturdays and some Friday afternoons) are booked in advance.
Oxney: Woodhouse Pinot
Location: Beckley, near Rye, East Sussex
It won silver at WineGB 2025 with 92 points. It is a multi-vintage wine built on a perpetual reserve, in the way sherry's solera works: part of the wine is drawn from the barrels each year for bottling, and the barrels are topped up with the new vintage. It is organic, vegan, unfined and unfiltered, and £27.
Visit: open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 to 4, all year. Wine flights are drop-in, and tours are booked.
Charles Palmer: Still Pinot Noir 2022
Location: Winchelsea, East Sussex
The 2022 won silver at Decanter 2026 with 90 points. It is aged for 12 months in French oak and made from the estate's 777 Pinot Noir clone. Charles Palmer's notes list blackberry, cherry, dark chocolate and spice. It is £32, with the 2020 (£26) and 2019 (£25) also listed.
Visit: open Wednesday to Saturday, 11 to 5, and Sunday 12 to 4, all year.
Other English red wines: Cabernet Jura, Gamay, Dornfelder and more
Mallard Point: Crossing Lines Cabernet Jura 2025
Location: Essendine, near Stamford, Lincolnshire
Mallard Point's first red single estate wine is 100% Cabernet Jura, wild yeast fermented, unfined and unfiltered, at 12% alcohol. It won silver at WineGB 2026 with 90 points and is £25. Peter Richards is quoted on Mallard Point's page: “Leafy crunchy black fruit, refreshing and juicy and not too much tannin. Impressively svelte.”
Visit: open Tuesday and Thursday, 10 to 4, and Saturday, 10 to 12. Guided tours run Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from March to September.
Abingworth: To A Skylark Cabaret Noir 2024
Location: Thakeham, near Pulborough, West Sussex
It won silver at WineGB 2026. Cabaret Noir is a PIWI grape that Abingworth says has similarities to Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The wine is handpicked and barrel-aged, and it is £28. Abingworth's notes list sour cherry, damson and blackberry, with silky tannins and bright acidity.
Visit: tours are by booking only, so contact the vineyard in advance.
Biddenden: Gribble Bridge Dornfelder 2025
Location: Biddenden, Kent
The 2024 won silver at Decanter 2026 with 90 points. The 2025 on sale is £16.95, the cheapest wine here: an off-dry, light red at 12.5%. Biddenden's notes list raspberry and summer fruit, and suggest serving it chilled at 10 to 12 degrees.
Visit: open every day from May to September, with shorter and changing hours the rest of the year. Closed from 25 December to 11 January.
Biddenden: Gamay Noir 2025
Location: Biddenden, Kent
It won silver at WineGB 2026. Gamay is the Beaujolais grape and rare in England: Biddenden has made just seven vintages since planting it in 1985, and the 2025 is the latest. It is £22.50 at 12%, and Biddenden's notes list fresh floral aromas and tart red fruits, and suggest serving it chilled or at room temperature. Oz Clarke and Tom Surgey, in Oz & Tom's English Wine Heroes 2026, call it “An outstanding example of a Summer red, crying out for ten minutes in the ice bucket.” John Mobbs of Great British Wine reviewed the 2018 in July 2019: “This has got to be one of the English wine surprises of the year.”
Visit: open every day from May to September, with shorter and changing hours the rest of the year. Closed from 25 December to 11 January.
Trevibban Mill: Cicero Red 2025
Location: near Padstow, Cornwall
It won silver at WineGB 2026. Cicero is a blend of Dornfelder and Pinotin, described by the estate as a fresh young red made with low intervention and bursting with fruit. It is £24.95. The same shop sells Black Ram Red, a Dornfelder and Rondo blend, at £26.95.
Visit: open Tuesday to Saturday, 12 to 5, from April to October, and Thursday to Saturday from November to March. Booking is recommended in peak season.
Warehorne: Oasthouse Estate Red Reserve
Location: Warehorne, near Ashford, Kent
It won bronze at WineGB 2025. It is a blend of 40% Pinot Noir and 60% Divico, a medium dry red with low acidity. Warehorne's notes list spiced red plum, blackcurrant and cherry with an earthy minerality, and suggest decanting it and serving it at room temperature. It is £23.99, at 11% alcohol.
Visit: the cellar door is open on Saturdays and Sundays, 10 to 5, and guided tours and tastings (about an hour and a half) are booked separately.
Winbirri: Signature 2021
Location: Surlingham, Norfolk
It won silver at Decanter 2026 with 90 points. It is 100% hand-picked Dornfelder, given three weeks of skin maceration, then a year in a fermentation vessel, 18 months in American oak (half new, half three years old) and a further 12 months in bottle. Winemaker Lee Dyer recommends it to anyone who is “a fan of Rioja”. Winbirri's notes list rich plum and dark-berry fruit, with coffee, blackberry and spice. It is 12%, and sold in threes at £55.50 or sixes at £102, the equivalent of £18.50 or £17 a bottle. John Mobbs of Great British Wine reviewed the 2016 in January 2021: “this red has great body and excellent concentration of dark cherry and bramble fruit flavours.”
Visit: tours and tastings must be pre-booked, from £32.50 a person and including up to five wines. The Wine Garden Bar is open on Saturdays and Sundays, 11 to 6, from May to August.
