Sompting Estate Vineyard & Winery

A new, yet ancient enterprise is growing out of the quality of Sompting's beautiful landscape.

You can buy our wines, and read more about them, on www.titchhill.com .

We planted our first vineyard, the Mountain Vineyard, in May 2019.  This has 8.5 acres of vines in a 10-acre field.  It's on a south facing chalky slope of the Sompting Downs, above the ancient Saxon church there.  The grape varieties are the champagne classics: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.  Another similar sized vineyard was planted in May 2023, this time with a much wider range of 'piwi' disease-resistant varieties, to expand the breadth of still and sparkling styles of wine we can make, and to help us on our journey to growing our grapes organically.

Some think of vineyards as rather sterile cropping areas, but ours buzz with bees butterflies and other wild life.  That's because we cut the alleys in rotation to let them flower in turn.  Our vineyards add to the patchwork variety of habitats on Titch Hill Farm, alongside woodland, arable and pasture.  For butterflies birds and small mammals, they provide a similar environment to the patchy scrub-and-meadow habitat that once covered much of the downs, connecting with mixed native species hedges for windbreaks.

Our first Titch Hill sparkling and still wines, made with natural method in a small temporary winery in a bay of our grainstore, were launched in summer 2023, included 'Wild Combination', a light sparkling rose with the taste of summer strawberries.  Each vintage since has developed further in flavour, including white, red and rose, sparkling and still.    

Click here to buy our wines.  For other enquiries, including for seasonal work opportunities: email General Manager Alex Tristram.