Chet Valley English wine estate in Norfolk, with vineyards planted to Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and several other grape varieties, has been put on the market by property agency Brown & Co.
It is currently owned by John and Bridget Hemmant, who planted their first vines more than a decade ago.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Brown & Co.
With a guide price of £1.65m, the sale offers a potential buyer the opportunity to parachute straight into the heart of the English wine scene.
‘Chet Valley supplies wine to private and corporate buyers alike, including some prestigious names,’ said Brown & Co.
Its East Anglia location is also tipped to see increasingly promising conditions for growing grapes, although adverse weather presented significant challenges for many UK producers in 2024.
There are around 6.52 hectares (ha) of vineyard on the estate, containing a range of grape varieties, and it also features an equipped winery and bottle store, said Brown & Co.
Alongside Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, grape varieties planted include Solaris, Phoenix, Schönberger, Seyval Blanc, Cabernet Noir and Regent.
There is room for expansion via an extra parcel of land covering 2.61ha, said the agency.
Away from the winemaking side, an entertaining space has a balcony overlooking the vines, it noted.
Meanwhile, a three-bedroom house on the estate has also been operated as a holiday let for many years.
Warmer temperatures may benefit vineyards in eastern England in the coming decades, although climate change may also bring fresh challenges to the UK’s young wine growing sector, found a study published in the Oeno One journal in 2022.
Researchers said some parts of the UK, including East Anglia, could see conditions that enabled the ‘exceptional’ 2018 vintage more often.
The UK’s fledgling winemaking scene has been garnering greater attention.
Global consultancy group Knight Frank recently highlighted how vineyard prices in the south-eastern county of Essex have been rising, bucking a trend for stagnation or decline in some of the world’s more established producer regions.
However, Ed Mansel Lewis, partner and head of viticulture at Knight Frank, told Decanter magazine’s June 2025 issue that UK vineyard land prices may have reached a plateau for the time being, following an increase in wine production in recent years.
