English Wine Week 2022: Meet the Bristol winemakers paving the way

With English Wine Week underway this week, we thought it best to shine a light on some of the wonderful English winemakers in Bristol and the surrounding areas.

It turns out Bristol is leading the way in English winemaking, with plenty of talent oozing out of the vines in the city.

The aim of English Wine Week is to help provide an opportunity for English winemakers to raise awareness of their roles, and to inspire more people to get to know how many wonderful English wines there are.

The hope is that the week will help people realise that they can buy from local vineyards here in the UK, and even, in central Bristol and other city locations.

English wine might not be particularly well known across the world yet, but it’s certainly no small industry anymore. ​​In fact, according to Wines of Great Britain, the organisers of English Wine Week, there are no fewer than 577 vineyards across the UK.

While the colder climes might be a little sparser on the wine front, Scotland has four, the north has 19, Wales has 23, the south east has 152 and the south west has an impressive 136.

Limeburn Hill Vineyard

This vineyard, nestled on the outskirts of Bristol, is known for being innovative and ecological. It was the first biodynamic vineyard in the south west of England, and one of only 7 in the UK, so it’s a great one to showcase for English Wine Week.

Perched on a sunny south-facing slope overlooking the Chew Valley the vineyard was hand-planted with 1800 vines in 2015 and a further 1200 in 2020/21. Eight varieties of grapes are grown – three red and five white – from which a variety of natural wines are produced.

With their wines certified and biodynamic and organic, you can go along yourselves to have a nosy at the production process and a wander around the beautiful vines.

Their vines produce Pétillant Naturel wines (naturally sparkling white, rosé and red) as well as still Amber wines (skin-macerated whites) and everything there is vegan, too.

Nania’s Vineyard

Nania’s Vineyard sums up everything that Bristol is all about when it comes to a small business and innovatively produces English natural wine in a can.

The company was inspired by their small urban vineyard in Montpelier, central Bristol, whereby they planted just 30 vines back in 2017. While their first vintage was fermenting last year which was only for a personal project, they had much bigger ideas brewing.

After that, they bought a truckload of English grapes from a small vineyard in sunny Essex (Sandyford Vineyard) and have produced a fine rosé wine which they’ve blended into a Spritzer. They’ve produced England’s first orange wine in a can, and are making a name for themselves for pushing boundaries and experimenting in English winemaking.

Dunleavy Vineyards

Situated just outside of Bristol, Dunleavy Vineyards combine passion and sustainable agricultural practices with the latest viticultural techniques to produce multi-award winning rosé and sparkling wines from their Regent and Seyval blanc grapes.

The vineyard was all planted and is looked after by owner Ingrid Bates, who has a background in biology.

Dunleavy Vineyards released their first wines in 2013 and has gone on to win a lot of awards, as well as now being stocked in some of the best restaurants in the country. It’s also been recommended by food critic Nigel Barden on Radio 2’s Drivetime show and BBC London radio.

Aldwick Estate

The Aldwick Estate in Bristol first created a vineyard for English wine creation in 2008, and have been going from strength to strength since. Since 2014, they’ve been winning awards for their wine and you can discover the world of English viticulture by having a tour of their vineyard.