Wiston Estate

Wiston Estate is open year-round and operates as one of the most fully developed visitor vineyards in England.

Vineyard Tours & Wine Tastings:

Guided winery tours and tastings run Tuesday to Sunday, typically at 11:00am and 2:30pm. While walk-ins may be accommodated if space allows, booking ahead is strongly recommended. A range of experiences is available, including tastings focused on vintage wines and longer-format tours.

Wiston also runs a varied calendar of events throughout the year, including harvest dinners, safari-style vineyard tours, and seasonal experiences. Full details are published on the estate’s official events page.

On-site dining:

Chalk Restaurant is open Tuesday to Sunday for breakfast and lunch, with dinner service on Friday and Saturday evenings. The menu focuses on seasonal produce sourced from the local area and works as well for a standalone visit as it does alongside a tour or tasting.

Accommodation:

Wiston offers a self-catering cottage, The Pump House, located separately from the main winery and restaurant, suited to longer stays rather than overnight tastings.

Dogs & children:

Well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome at the outdoor tables of Chalk Restaurant and on public footpaths across the estate. Dogs are not permitted inside the restaurant or on standard winery tours, though they are allowed on the Vineyard Explorer Tour & Lunch. Families are welcome on the estate and in the restaurant, but winery tours, tastings, and alcohol-focused events are restricted to over-18s.

Wiston Estate is best known for its traditional-method English sparkling wines, made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. The estate also produces a small range of still wines, including Pinot Gris and blended whites, alongside its own gin.

The sparkling wines are widely regarded as benchmarks for the South Downs and have featured in high-profile settings, including state banquets. A number of cuvées from the estate’s Library Collection and Blanc de Blancs releases have received top-level recognition at major competitions, reinforcing Wiston’s reputation for long-term ageing and precision rather than volume-led production.

All wines are made at Wiston’s on-site winery, allowing close control from harvest through fermentation and ageing. The estate is accredited under the Sustainable Wines of Great Britain scheme, with practices including cover cropping, composting vineyard waste, solar power use, and an avoidance of herbicides and pesticides.

By car

Wiston Estate is located near Washington in West Sussex, with postcode RH20 4BB. The estate sits just off the A24 and is around 20 minutes by car from Worthing and Horsham. Driving from central London typically takes around two hours, depending on traffic.

By public transport

The nearest mainline stations are Worthing and Horsham, both served by direct trains from London Victoria in under 90 minutes. From either station, a taxi journey to the estate takes around 20 minutes. Local bus stops at Washington Bostal and Washington Cottages are within walking distance, though services are infrequent.

Wiston sits in a particularly walkable and scenic part of the South Downs, with historic sites, pubs, and countryside trails all close by.

Restaurants

• The George at Burpham – A well-regarded gastropub focusing on modern British cooking.
• The Crown Inn at Cootham – A long-established inn serving classic pub food.

Hotels

• The Roundabout Hotel, Pulborough – A comfortable base close to the South Downs.
• The White Horse Inn, Pulborough – A historic coaching inn with rooms.

Attractions

• Chanctonbury Ring – A prominent hilltop landmark with panoramic walking routes.
• Arundel Castle – A major historic attraction with gardens and exhibitions.

Wiston is often cited as one of the estates that helped shift perceptions of what English sparkling wine could achieve with long ageing. From early on, the focus was on building wines designed to mature slowly, rather than releasing them as quickly as possible. That philosophy underpins the estate’s extensive library programme and explains why older vintages continue to feature so prominently in tastings and awards.

A defining moment in Wiston’s development came with the decision to bring winemaking fully in-house, allowing tighter control over pressing, fermentation, and ageing. This move coincided with a growing emphasis on single-vintage releases and extended lees ageing, particularly for Blanc de Blancs wines, which have become a signature of the estate’s style.

The estate’s location on chalk soils in the South Downs aligns it geologically with some of the most highly regarded sparkling wine regions in Europe, and that connection is often referenced when discussing the tension, precision, and longevity of the wines. Rather than pursuing scale, Wiston has consistently chosen to refine process and detail — from vineyard management through to disgorgement decisions — reinforcing its reputation as a producer built around patience and consistency rather than volume.

Beyond wine, Wiston’s evolution into a broader destination has been deliberately paced. The addition of Chalk Restaurant and limited accommodation reflects an estate-led approach to hospitality, designed to support longer visits without overwhelming the core focus on wine and landscape.