Tours and tastings
Visit award-winning vineyards and breweries, go wine-tasting or learn about local ales – there’s much to savour in the Chilterns.
A mild climate, and an abundance of sunny slopes and chalky soils, makes the Chiltern Hills the prefect spot for drink production. As such, this rolling landscape is home to many breweries, vineyards and distilleries – some set in beautiful countryside, while others hugging the edges of quaint market towns.
The information below will give you lots of ideas for tempting tours and places to visit, or visit our interactive map to browse more of what the Chilterns has to offer.
Breweries
If you’re partial to a pint, animated by ale or selective with your stout, the Chilterns is the place to be. Here, beers are brewed with passion and skill by real-ale enthusiasts rooted in their local communities. The area boasts many breweries of different sizes, offering a wonderful array of beers, some named after special places or historic figures. Here is a small selection to get your thirst going.
Chiltern Brewery
This is the oldest independent brewery in the Chilterns. Award-winning labels include John Hampden’s Ale, brewed in memory of ‘The Patriot’ of the Civil War who lived nearby, and Bodgers Barley Wine, a tribute to the craftsmen who worked in the beech woods of Buckinghamshire making furniture. Buy online, visit the Brewery Shop or enjoy the Brewery’s drinks at the award-winning pub: The King’s Head in Aylesbury.
Read moreLoddon Brewery
An independent brewery creating award winning beers since 2003.
Based on a farm in Dunsden Green between Reading and South Oxfordshire, our 20-barrel plant can brew up to 30,000 pints a week serving across the UK. Our onsite Tap yard is on a beautiful farm just a mile from Reading, the perfect place to enjoy the freshest cask beers straight from the source, with a built in kitchen offering delicious brunch and lunches throughout the week. Enjoy browsing our Farm Shop, celebrating local suppliers with cheese, meats, pantry products and more, not forgetting Loddon beers ready to takeaway.
Read moreTring Brewery
A local, independent and award-winning brewer, steeped in Tring’s history and proudly offering the biggest selection of locally brewed cask, keg and bottled beer in Hertfordshire. Both CAMRA and SIBA acclaimed, it is a small business with a passionate team. Tours of the brewery offer a fun and informative insight into beer and brewing.
Read moreDistilleries
If liquor is more to your taste than beer, then the Chilterns AONB won’t disappoint. Distilleries offering the finest gins and spirits can be found here, with options to shop easily from the comfort of your living room, or to enjoy tastings and tours onsite.
Cross Stream
Premium spirits are produced in a small, family run distillery in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Cross Stream was born out of a passion to create drinks using traditional methods. Shop online and look out for their enticing gin cocktail recipes. The distillery is open by appointment.
Griffiths Brothers Distillery
As the name suggests, this local distillery is run by two brothers who have a mutual love for gin. Based in the small Buckinghamshire village of Penn Street, not far from Amersham, this distillery uses cold distillation. During this process, each botanical is individually macerated to draw out its essential oils. Cold distillation is more complex, but the results speak for themselves! Buy in the shop or online, or join a tour to find out more.
Read morePuddingstone Distillery
Hertfordshire’s first gin distillery, Puddingstone is the home of the award-winning Campfire Gin. Just 5 minutes’ drive from Tring, this very popular range can be tasted at the distillery shop, which is open Fridays and Saturdays. Tours and other events, such as cocktail making and dining at the distillery, are run throughout the year.
Read moreVineyards
A taste of the good life is waiting for you at one the Chiltern AONB’s many vineyards. The UK’s wine business is booming, a surge mainly driven by improving sparkling wines. Today, many different wines are produced, particularly in south-east England, where underlying chalk and shining sunny days offer the perfect growing conditions for the vines.
Oaken Grove Vineyard
Established in 1986, Oaken Grove Vineyard near Henley-on-Thames has seven acres of Pinot Noir, Bacchus and Madeleine Angevine vines which produce exceptional quality wines that are fresh, modern and packed with flavour. The vineyard runs regular tours and tastings, as well as wonderful public events set against the beautiful backdrop of glorious ancient woodland.
Read moreBrightwell Vineyard
This typical Chilterns vineyard produces white, rosé, red and sparkling wines, which frequently win medals. The vineyard and winery is open for sales on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 12-6pm. Sales at other times are available from the vineyard house or online. You can also find out more by booking a tour or wine tasting event.
Read moreDaws Hill
On a south-facing hillside in the tranquil Radnage Valley, Daws Hill produces around 10,000 bottles a year, mostly of sparkling white wine, but also Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Established in 2004, the vineyard now has around 5,000 vines and extends over three acres; tours are available. The Radnage Valley is also one of the best places in the Chilterns to see red kites – they’re likely to be soaring overhead as you wander through the vines!
Read moreChiltern Valley Winery & Brewery
With vineyards, Luxters Brewery, liqueur-making facilities and a cellar shop, this is a one-stop shop for local produce. Buy online or pop up along to browse, enjoy tours and tastings, and even stay in the farmhouse B&B.
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Harrow and Hope
This vineyard, situated above the Thames near Marlow, was established by Henry and Kaye Laithwaite of the well-known wine-retailing family. They are making the most of their chalky, flinty soil to produce sparkling wines using Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes. Purchase online or book a tour to see (and taste!) the winery in action.
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