Langham Wine Estate opens tasting room

Langham Wine Estate in Dorset has opened a tasting room allowing guest to sample its sparkling wines on site for the first time, adding to England’s growing wine tourism offer.

The tasting room, originally a barn, will be used to host tours and provides a space in which to taste Langham’s wines for both passing visitors and organised tours.

The space will also be available for private hire, with its owner, Justin Langham, eventually planning to host ticketed dinners with well-known local chefs.

“Dorset has everything required to produce wines of the highest quality: chalk soils, a warm climate and long growing season”, said Langham. “Our tasting room opens up the opportunity for even more people to come and enjoy our wines just a stone’s throw from the vineyard and winery where they are produced.”

The Langham vineyard was established by John Langham, on a very small scale, and developed in 2009 into a commercial venture by his son, Justin, who planted 30 acres of land at their Crawthorne farm.

“We hope that [the tasting room] will encourage people far and wide to discover what Dorset has to offer, to taste, to visit the estate and get a personal insight into how we go about producing world-class wines”, added winemaker Daniel Ham.

A total of 37 new English wine producers were founded last year to meet growing demand for English sparkling wine, with many now working to diversify their offer into tourism with tasting rooms, vineyard tours and accommodation on site becoming more popular.

The WSTA already stated its belief that the UK has the potential to become a “major player” in the world of wine tourism late last year, while Julia Trustram-Eve, marketing director, of English Wine Producers, noted English vineyards’ “increasingly creative methods to host visitors, from guided tours and visitors’ centres to places to stay and on-site restaurants”.

“The growth in awareness and enthusiasm in locally-sourced and produced food has heightened the interest in rural tourism and the exciting work being done at vineyards across the country. As English wines become available in pubs, restaurants and retail outlets, it is great to see visitors given the chance to look behind the scenes. Wine tourism, in whatever guise, is something that is a growing area in the UK wine industry.”

The UK is currently home to 470 vineyards and 135 vineyards, which predominantly produce sparkling wine (66%), still white (24%) and red/rosé wines (10%). The most commonly planted grape variety is Chardonnay (21%), followed by Pinot Noir (19%) and Bacchus (9%).