Vineyards and wineries in Hampshire
Meunier on chalk, along the Test, the Itchen and the Meon.
Meunier on chalk, along the Test, the Itchen and the Meon.
Two of Hampshire’s winemakers single out one grape: Meunier, grown on chalk. Emma Rice, former head winemaker at Hattingley Valley, told Decanter in 2025 that it is the one variety that stands out in the county; Corinne Seely, consultant winemaker at Exton Park, says the grape’s vibrancy and floral character tend to be lost on clay, where it is often planted in Champagne. The Grange, above the Itchen, has more Meunier planted than Pinot Noir, and its managing partner, Zam Baring, calls the late-budding variety a favourable choice where frost is a risk.
Some of the county’s slopes have shallow topsoil over free-draining belemnite chalk, the type found in Champagne’s Côte des Blancs. Rice says the prevailing south-westerlies hit Hampshire first, before the counties further east, and Stephen Skelton MW’s 2023 harvest report for WineGB found Hampshire’s average growing degree days for 2018–2023 consistently lower than those of Reims. Where Kent can ripen Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to still-wine levels in good years, in Rice’s words, Hampshire rarely can.
In March 2025 WineGB Wessex held a base-wine tasting to explore ‘subregional pockets’, and in Hampshire those could be its three chalk-stream valleys: the Itchen, with Raimes, The Grange and Louis Pommery England; the Test, with Black Chalk and Danebury; and the Meon, with Exton Park and Hambledon. Hambledon, planted in 1952, calls itself England’s oldest commercial vineyard; its founder’s stepson had pointed out that the fields in front of the house were “south facing and chalky”. Champagne Vranken-Pommery acquired Pinglestone in 2014 and planted its first vines in 2017, at the confluence of the Itchen and the Arle.
In the New Forest, away from the valleys, The B58 Winery grows its vines in tunnels, which let it take on Gewürztraminer, and Setley Ridge has replanted with disease-resistant varieties.
Award-winning in Hampshire
Coates and Seely is a sparkling wine estate near Whitchurch, Hampshire, founded on chalk downland by two friends in 2008.
Hambledon is England's oldest commercial vineyard, planted on South Downs chalk in 1952 and now home to a restaurant listed in the Michelin Guide and a cellar door shop curated by a Master of Wine.
Black Chalk is a winemaker-led sparkling wine estate in Hampshire's Test Valley, its own winery finished within 48 hours of the first harvest in 2020.
Exton Park is a single sixty-acre vineyard in the South Downs National Park, growing every grape and making every wine itself since 2009.
Hattingley Valley is a Hampshire winery founded by a former lawyer in 2008, now home to a Master of Wine and a 450-tonne winery that also makes wine for growers across the south.
Pinglestone Estate is Champagne house Pommery's English vineyard on Hampshire chalk, its wines made under the same cellar master as Pommery's own Reims cellars.
A family farm near Alresford growing grapes for sparkling wine, with a tasting barn overlooking the vineyard for flights, glasses and grazing boards.
The Grange is a family-run vineyard and winery on Hampshire's Itchen valley, making sparkling and still wine from vines planted in 2011.
In a Hampshire village on the river Anton, one acre of chalk-slope vines is turned into wine under contract in Staffordshire, with bespoke tastings by appointment.
Penn Croft is the vineyard and own label of Itasca Wines, a contract winery at Crondall in Hampshire, with a café and wine tasting room at its cellar door.
A fruit farm in the New Forest growing its vines under tunnels, for still wines that include a Gewürztraminer and an orange Bacchus.
Danebury Vineyards is a small Hampshire estate on the old paddocks of a nineteenth-century racehorse yard, making sparkling and still wine since 1988.
All 20 to visit in Hampshire
Black ChalkAndover
Bsixtwelve
Coates and SeelyWhitchurch- DaneburyStockbridge
Exton ParkExton
Goodworth ClatfordAndover
HambledonHambledon
Hattingley ValleyAlresford
LongdownWinchester
Louis Pommery at Pinglestone EstateOld Alresford
Northbrook
OtiumAlton
Penn CroftCrondall
Quob ParkWickham- RaimesAlresford
- Setley RidgeBrockenhurst
- The B58 WineryEast Boldre
The GrangeAlresford
The Wharie ExperienceLymington
WickhamShedfield
Curated trips in Hampshire
No curated trip runs through Hampshire yet.
Plan a trip to Hampshire
Pin estates onto a map, follow a curated itinerary, or stitch your own weekend together — drive times and tasting hours included.
