SQUERRYES
Known as the ancestral estate within the Wine Garden of England, Squerryes has been the family home of the Warde family for almost 300 years. It’ s only in more recent years that we’ ve been in the business of making wine though, following a visit from a French Champagne house wanting to buy some of our land to plant their own vines. This set us on a path of winemaking where now, some 19 years on from planting our own vines, we’ re proud to be receiving industry accolades for our wines and welcoming visitors to the estate to enjoy our hospitality.
Our chalk-rich vineyard sits high on the North Downs in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. At 150 metres above sea level, we’ re one-degree celsius cooler than most vineyards in South East England, giving us long, cool summers where our vines flourish in this extended growing season, producing fruit that has the perfect balance of natural sweetness and acidity. We use our own Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir grapes to make vintage English Sparkling Wine, so only grapes grown in one season make that year’ s vintage.
As the only wine estate to have won a gold medal for five consecutive vintages in the Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships, we’ re proud of this unique achievement for an English wine brand. This last year has also seen us bring our winemaking onto the estate and welcome a Head Winemaker to our team.
At the centre of the estate is the ancestral home, Squerryes Court, where above the front door sits the family motto:‘ Licet Esse Beatis’, meaning‘ it is permitted to be joyful’. It’ s the spirit of the 2,500-acre estate and today we like to say we’ re in the business of creating joy. It influences all we do, from bottling that joy in the form of fine vintage sparkling wine, to the places we welcome people to enjoy the simple pleasures in life – delicious food and wine.
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