Simpsons Wine Estate is hoping to build on the growing excitement of English wine with a programme of wine tourism that will see the winery run regular vineyard tours.
The tours will take place at Simpsons’ vineyards and new winery in Barham, Kent, where the producer has just finished its final plantation of Champagne grape varieties Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay.
Taking place each month throughout the summer, the tours will include food and wine tastings followed by a view of Simpsons’ state-of-the-art Roman Road winery, which opened last October, ending with a glass of bubbles and tasting of wines from the Simpsons’ Domaine de Sainte Rose estate in the Languedoc.
The summer tours would be followed by regular tasting session in Simpsons’ ‘Glasshouse’ tasting room - complete with helter-skelter slide - in the autumn, said co-owner, Ruth Simpson.
“Wine tourism is very important for us and increasingly important to Kent, as the Garden of England, and we’ve always wanted to welcome wine lovers to our English estate."
The Roman Road winery, where vines were first planted in 2014, marked the first English wine venture for husband and wife team Charles and Ruth Simpson, who had been making wine in the Languedoc at Domaine Sainte Rose for the past 15 years.
The first wine from Roman Road – a Chardonnay - was launched in May this year.