Ever since lockdown has been lifted, I told myself that I’ll make the most of the days that I’m on furlough and explore more of London and beyond. I came across Denbies Wine Estate by chance – in fact, an instagram follower mentioned that to me and it only took one look at their website before deciding “Yep! I’m going there!”
My friend K and I were supposed to go to another point of interest around the area but had a complete change of heart and made Denbies Wine Estate as our destination instead. The estate is located in Dorking, Surrey an hour away from Central London but only 30mins or so from where I live. “This better be good because I’m getting too excited about it!” was what I told K a few days before our visit. I guess it’s because of the lack of proper holiday this year that even a day trip to Dorking made both of us too excited. Lol.
I booked an outdoor vineyard train tour priced at £12.00 per person with a glass of bubbly which I think wasn’t too bad. We were hoping and praying to all the gods and goddesses that we have a sunny and warm day during our visit and luckily, our prayers were answered.
We arrived at Denbies Wine Estate at around 11:45am and fell in love with it instantly. It definitely feels like you’ve been transported to Italy or France. The vineyards around were so inviting but I had to refrain myself from running towards it to take millions of photos. We’ll have loads of time after the tour anyway as we’ve scheduled our entire day to a tee, that’s what you get when you have two Travel Consultants planning your day trip. Lol.
Our “train” arrived right on the dot and our tour started immediately. Denbies Wine Estate is the largest vineyard in England covering 265 acres. The estate is family-owned and the vineyard was planted in 1986. They are now one of the largest wine producers in the UK and are known for their award-winning sparkling rose wine.
The tour passes through endless rows of vines and makes a stop at the top of a hill with a stunning view of the whole estate. This is where you’ll be served your glass of bubbly and which I think my friend K wasn’t very happy about. Our tour guide didn’t properly pour the bubbly so she ran after him to make sure that he tops up her glass which was full of bubbles. Can’t take her anywhere! Lol. Jokes aside, our tour guide was very informative giving us important details of the history of the estate which made it all the more interesting for us.
You don’t have to take the tour if you don’t want to, there is actually a public footpath which you can follow that also passes through the vineyard. We just chose not to do it because, well… we’ve got no time and energy for a hike. Lol. There is no entrance fee so you can explore the vineyard on your own at your own pace if you wish.
There is a hotel onsite if you want to spend a full day there. There are also two restaurants however at the moment, one of them operates only during the weekends while the other is only for hotel guests. They do have the Conservatory Restaurant beside the gift shop which serves light snacks and hot meals.
As soon as we got back at the Visitor’s Centre, we immediately went into the vineyards and took loads of photos. My friend K was my model who did everything I asked her to. Walk away from me. Twirl. Run!
This is my favourite photo of hers:
I very rarely have my photos taken and if I do, I don’t normally post it on here or in any social media but Denbies Wine Estate is too pretty not to have one with this pose.
And then we found a tree with a swing where K lost her sh*t.
After so many photos, running around and swinging around – we decided to call it a day and went straight to the gift shop where K, once again, lost her sh*t. We bought 3 bottles of wine each to get the 20% discount.
It was a lovely afternoon spent at Denbies Wine Estate. It did feel like we traveled somewhere outside of England because we both didn’t realize that such a place exists here with a very different scenery and thankfully, the weather cooperated with us.
Here’s a short video of our visit. I received so many inquiries from my followers when I posted this on my instagram story and this is why I love (sometimes) social media. You get to discover new things.
Special thanks to my beautiful model K.
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Very nice to spend the day with a friend in a place like that.