Vineyards and wineries in Suffolk

Vineyards since the 1970s, on land a 2018 study rated highly.

A study published in 2018 graded every 50 x 50 metre plot of land in England and Wales for vines, and its lead author, Dr Alistair Nesbitt of the University of East Anglia, said some of the best areas it found were where relatively few vineyards then existed, such as in Essex and Suffolk — parts of the country drier, warmer and more stable year to year than some established vineyard locations.

Suffolk’s vineyards have an older layer too. Shawsgate, near Framlingham, has roots the tourism board dates to 1972, and works as a production hub for vineyards across the East of England. Giffords Hall was first planted at Hartest and Depden in 1986, Valley Farm has grown grapes near Halesworth since 1987, and Wyken’s vines went in in 1988, on sandy loam over chalk.

Visit Suffolk describes a new generation of vineyards emerging alongside the established producers. At Ark, a family that moved from Sweden planted its first vines in 2019 on an old chicken farm in the Stour Valley; at Hawkswood, Irene and Michael Rhodes retired to Thurston in 2018 to make wine; Shotley, at the tip of the peninsula where the Orwell and Stour meet, was bought in 2017 and released its first vintage in 2020. Coopers Croft is tended entirely by hand, Burnt House sets its vines on farmland worked for generations, and at Lavenham Brook sheep graze between the rows on a chalky slope above the River Brett.

Visit Suffolk’s rail itinerary puts Bury St Edmunds around an hour and a half from London by train, and has Burnt House as a walk of just over an hour from Stowmarket station; it notes that most rural vineyard visits need a taxi or pre-arranged transfer for the final leg.