Plan your Wine Tour & Tasting at Rathfinny

Experience a tour of the Rathfinny Wine Estate and learn how we turn our grapes into world-class Sussex Sparkling wines. We offer seasonal vineyard tours and wine tastings all year round.

If you have a gift voucher for a Tour & Tasting, please contact our Cellar Door to book your visit as these vouchers cannot be redeemed online.

Rathfinny_Tour_Guide_Judith
November - April

Winter TOUR & TASTING

Join us this winter for an in-depth tour of our Vineyard, Winery and bottling plant. During this enjoyable tour, you will learn how a typical year of growing vines and wine production progresses. Among the highlights are a visit to our RIBA nominated Winery and production facility to learn the process and care involved in making high quality sparkling wines, concluding with a guided tasting of our Sussex wines. All tours start at the Cellar Door.

Time. 10.30am, 1pm and 3pm every Saturday and Sunday | Duration. 1hr 45mins in total | Price. £27.50 per person

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Wine Tasting at Hedonism

Winter Portfolio Tasting

Running on the weekends throughout winter, the Portfolio Tasting allows you to by-pass the walking elements of our usual tours and head straight to the wine. Immersed in the winery, you will learn all about Rathfinny and taste a wider range of our portfolio of Sussex wines and spirits.

Time. 3pm every Saturday and Sunday | Duration. 1hr 45mins in total | Price. £27.50 per person

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Vineyard tour
Sussex Wine
Rathfinny Wine

Sussex Wine Tasting

There are many other ways to sample our Sussex wines, including drop-in tastings at the Cellar Door so you can sample before you purchase, tasting menus with wine pairings at the Tasting Room or enjoy a glass of Sussex at The Hut which is our new walk-in bar. We also have accommodation to allow you to stay in the heart of the vineyard while you enjoy our wines.

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English Wine Tour
No booking required

SELF-GUIDED VINEYARD TOUR

Explore the Vineyard at your own pace with our self-guided walking trail. Visit the Cellar Door during opening hours to collect a map that we’ve carefully designed with information about our location, the vines, wildlife, and our hospitality facilities. There are also audio talking posts along the way. The trail is suitable for dogs and children but please note the ground can be uneven underfoot. No need to pre-book and free parking is available.

View the walking map
Sussex Sparkling and Cakes from The Hut
Wine & light bites

The Hut

Enjoy a pre-tour coffee or a glass of your favourite wine from the tasting section of your tour at The Hut. This is our new takeaway bar, situated just outside the Cellar Door where your tour begins and ends. Open every day, serving our Sussex wines, hot and cold drinks, freshly baked cakes and light bites.

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All tours and tastings start at the Cellar Door

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ABOUT OUR SUSSEX VINEYARD TOURS

Steeped in history and farmed for generations, the Rathfinny Vineyard occupies 600 acres of land, encompassed by the South Downs National Park and the English Channel. During our tours, you will understand how our sense of place grounds Rathfinny to its core through the combination of our coastal geography, chalk soil, state of the art winemaking facilities and local community workforce that work together to produce our high-quality, vintage Sussex Sparkling wines.

Now is a particularly exciting time to enjoy a Sussex Vineyard tour as the provenance of Sussex Sparkling wine has recently been recognised with official legal status – awarded a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). This is a momentous time in our history as it establishes a gold standard for Sussex wines, in the same vein as other protected products like Champagne, Jersey Royal Potatoes and Cornish clotted cream, well-known for their quality guarantee.

VINEYARD TOUR & TASTING HIGHLIGHTS

Rathfinny has been named among the best vineyards to tour in Sussex, by the likes of Tatler, Condé Nast Traveller and Hot Dinners, to name a few.

Our Estate tours are perfect for wine enthusiasts, visitors to Sussex and for those who wish to learn about the winemaking process whilst enjoying a stroll through our beautiful Estate. We have an enthusiastic team of tour guides, each with their own style and perspective to bring our story to life. Many have also worked in the Vineyard so have first hand experience of the hard work it takes to care for each vine.

From grape to glass, our tours walk you through the entire winemaking process as we divulge the secrets of producing English Sparkling Wine, including our English Sparkling Rosé, which is experiencing rising popularity. The Sunday Telegraph described our 2017 vintage as “Ravishing”. The wine tasting aspect is a great opportunity to sample our Sussex wine portfolio and try something new. Your tutored guide will showcase the range and talk you through the tasting notes.

Please note, tours and wine tastings are not suitable for children. Summer tours always include a short walk around the Vineyard unless the weather is poor, whereas winter tours are kept indoors with an exclusive visit to our Bottling building instead where you will see the production line.

Further Information

Terms & conditions

TOUR TERMS & CONDITIONS.

Wine Tours will continue to run in the event of inclement weather, unless it is deemed unsafe by Rathfinny Wine Estate, in which case you will be offered a credit note. Rathfinny reserves the right to postpone tours as required. We recommend that suitable outdoor activity clothing and footwear is worn. Payment for Tours is due at the time of booking. Tickets are non-refundable, however, we may be able to transfer them to an alternative date with a minimum of four weeks’ notice. We request that everyone maintains social distancing measures throughout the tour and uses the hand sanitiser provided.

If you wish to dine in the Tasting Room restaurant following your tour this must be booked separately in advance and is subject to availability. Book here.

Dogs are not permitted on tours, unless they are guide-dogs.

SELF-GUIDED WALKING TOUR SAFETY INFORMATION.

We welcome walkers to the Estate. Please be aware of your safety and remember that we are a working vineyard, with heavy machinery, and it is really important that you:

  • Keep to the path
  • Follow the signs at all times
  • Keep dogs on leads and clear up their mess
  • Take care when crossing roads
  • Follow the countryside code

Please park only in designated car parks and not in lay-bys, which are constantly in use.

Find Us

Cellar Door
Rathfinny Wine Estate,
Alfriston, East Sussex,
BN26 5TU

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