The story began in 1986 when the new owners of the Denbies estate, the White family, recognised the unique characteristics of the North Dow landscape. Its south facing slopes, chalky soil and warm micro-climate made it ideal for creating England’s largest vineyard. The impressive chateau-style winery was completed in 1993, the same year as our maiden wine, Surrey Gold, was released. Today, Denbies Surrey Gold continues to be the UK’s bestselling English wine. The scale of the Denbies site allows room for innovative and experimental viticulture and the opportunity to trial new styles of wine making.

The geology of the soil at our site – particularly through its chalk and flint content – lends a freshness and a minerality to many of the wine styles we make. The size of the site means that we have vines of a single variety growing in up to four separate parcels around the estate – and the difference in the flavours of the fruit from the different plots is significant. This is due to variation in soil type, altitude, slope aspect and slope gradient and consequently our wines express the range of different terroirs found across the estate.

There is an increasing demand for fine local produce including wines, food miles seem more important than ever and transparency of production is high on the agenda of many more consumers.  Denbies is very proud to clearly state that their wine is made only from single estate grown grapes, so the quality is controlled from the vine to the bottle.  All the wines undergo stringent testing by independent laboratories through the English Quality Wine Scheme equivalent of Appellation Controllee. Denbies vineyard and winery are open to the public and trade customers are welcome to meet the winemaker and tour the production area.  For the most part, Denbies food miles (25 miles to Hyde Park Corner) is a huge selling point for the smaller parcel production which is an important factor for our end consumers. However, with increased production Denbies is constantly striving to ensure that the benefits do not outweigh the commitment to sustainability and it is therefore become necessary to identify direct supply. Denbies does not currently export outside of the UK.