As our Tour & Tasting season comes to a close, here we look back on what a season it has been - and if you haven’t been on one, you won’t know what you’ve been missing!
These events are incredibly popular and we’ve been running three every other week through the growing season (we stop after harvest as it doesn’t seem right to show just old leaves with no grapes). It’s difficult to say what the most popular event time was – Friday evenings after work sometimes and at other times Saturday afternoons.
In total, we’ve introduced just under a thousand people to our vineyards this year. Most of the tours are a mix of individuals, couples and groups of friends but we’ve had a number of corporate parties (after all we are only 45 minutes from Paddington Station) and private tours. We have linked in with The Vineyard Hotel & Spa and it is always great to welcome their guests – we’ve had friends from France, the USA, HK and Japan to name but a few countries.
To answer some common questions:
- How long does it last? The Tour & tasting lasts for between 90 mins and 2 hours but can go on much longer depending on the level of engagement.
- Do we have to walk? Yes – strange that we get asked that as you’d think the clue was in the title.
- What is involved? We go round 2 of the vineyards and talk about what is involved in growing the grapes, the work at different stages of the season (and we illustrate that), the history of English vineyards, the successes and the challenges, the enormous history of Church Farm and the surroundings, the importance to us of sustainability, how we got our name and then we taste three of our current releases and talk about and illustrate the wine making process, how we blend, what makes us different and what’s in store for the future.
- Can we book a private tour? Certainly, subject to a minimum of 12 people, and if it is a private tour, we can be more flexible on timing and days.
- How many people can you accommodate? For the scheduled tours, we can cater for 20 people at a time but for private and corporate, we can go up to 60 people.
- Can we eat? We provide options of a standard tour without food, a tour with cheese & charcuterie and then, for private and corporate events everything through to fine dining with one of our fine dining chefs.
- How far in advance do we have to book? As soon as possible as we do get booked up quickly. Occasionally we will have last minute vacancies but we need to know by the previous Tuesday if you want cheese & charcuterie.
- Can we buy a voucher? Yes, vouchers as presents are very popular, especially around Christmas time.
- Are you dog friendly? Very much so: we have a number of dogs at the vineyard and one or more may come on the tour, so feel free to bring your pup. We just ask that you keep them on the lead and treat the vineyard and the tasting room as you would your own home: poop bags and towels for muddy paws.
We’re already getting bookings for 2024 so best get in there quickly…