A Guide to England's Historic Vineyards

England has had vineyards since Roman times, and again in the Middle Ages, but the modern chapter began on the South Downs in 1952. That was the year Major Guy Salisbury-Jones planted vines at Hambledon in Hampshire - England's first commercial vineyard of the modern era. His first harvest came in 1954, his first bottled wine in 1955, and Hambledon has been producing ever since. Visit the restaurant today and you will find some of those early bottles on display behind glass, a reminder of how far back the story goes.

New Hall Vineyards in Purleigh, Essex followed in 1969, planted by Bill and Sheila Greenwood on chalky Essex countryside. It is now home to some of the oldest commercially producing vines in England. The estate recently refurbished its tasting room to look out across the vines, and its South African winemaker has been promoted to head winemaker, with plans to bring more oak into the range. New Hall is proud of its history, but its attention is on what comes next.

Bolney Wine Estate in West Sussex was planted by Janet and Rodney Pratt in 1972. A significant investment from Spanish cava group Freixenet has since given it the feel of a modern operation - polished visitor facilities, a confident setup. Little about the place announces its age.

Something shifted in 1979. Three significant vineyards - in East Sussex, Berkshire and West Sussex - all put their first vines in the ground in the same year, independently of each other.

Roy Cook founded Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard in East Sussex in 1979, planting his first 2,000 cuttings on 1.5 acres without pesticides or synthetic fertilisers. It is recognised as England's oldest organic vineyard. On a visit, that heritage is not loudly announced - there is no trail or display pointing to the original plantings - but the tasting flights give you a clear sense of what farming this way, on this site, for over 45 years, produces.

At what is now Stanlake Park Wine Estate in Berkshire, the initial planting was experimental by design: around 500 vines across 30 different varieties, testing which grapes could perform in the Thames Valley climate. Some of those original vines are still there near the entrance - craggy, moss-covered, noticeably thicker around the trunk than anything planted in the last decade. They are not the estate's main production vines, but they are worth stopping at. Stanlake is now run by a husband and wife from Italy and Argentina, and retains a personal, independent feel.

Nutbourne Vineyards in West Sussex also dates from 1979, today run by the Gladwin family. Its wines are amongst the most affordable you will find from any English estate. That is a function of what a mature vineyard looks like financially: the vines are established, the infrastructure long paid for. Newer estates wait years for vines to reach productive maturity, and sparkling wines spend further years resting on lees before they can be sold. Nutbourne has been through all of that already, and the prices reflect it.

If the 1970s were about individuals with a hunch that English wine could work, the 1980s saw the stakes raised considerably.

Denbies Wine Estate near Dorking in Surrey began planting in 1986, when Adrian White put in the first 30 acres on the North Downs chalk. Further plantings followed until the estate reached its current scale of around 265 acres - the largest single-estate vineyard in the UK, and by some distance the most visited vineyard in England.

In Suffolk, Wyken Vineyards was planted in 1988 on a south-facing slope that had been used for exactly this purpose before - archaeological evidence points to a Roman vineyard on the same site. Most of what Wyken produces is sold through its restaurant, often cited as the first vineyard restaurant in England.

Nyetimber sits at the centre of almost every account of how English sparkling wine became what it is today. In 1988, Stuart and Sandy Moss planted Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier in West Sussex - the Champagne varieties - when experts, including those in France, said the English climate would not support them. Their first vintage took a trophy at the International Wine and Spirit Competition in 1992. At Nyetimber's open days - they hold just a couple each year - the Moss story gets a mention, though it shares the room with the estate's Tudor history. The focus is firmly on the current winemaker and what the wines are doing now.

Most of the nine estates in this guide are open for visits, though not all on the same terms. Hambledon, Bolney, Sedlescombe, Denbies and Wyken all offer regular tours and tastings. Nyetimber opens for just a couple of days each year - check their website well in advance as places go quickly. New Hall, Stanlake and Nutbourne have more limited public visiting but open for events and seasonal tastings.

What makes visiting these vineyards different from a newer estate is not always the wine, though several produce wines that stand alongside the best in England. Sometimes it is the craggy old vines near the gate at Stanlake, or the early bottles behind glass at Hambledon's restaurant. The history is not always on display - but it is always there.