When you're invited to visit a local award winning vineyard it's the perfect excuse to take a day out of the office.
Astley Vineyard are a Worcestershire based wine producer with a beautiful vineyard, shop and visitors centre. Astley use Macneil's Smokehouse Smoked Salmon and our Herefordshire Cider and Apple Cured Salmon on their tasting menus for vineyard tour visitors as our fish products pair beautifully with their wines and its a match made in heaven. We've been promising a visit to find out more about this top producer that's on our doorstep.
Chris Haywood headed up our tour - Chris and his family run the vineyard which also boasts a woodland used for community projects, a winery where they make their own blends, a visitors centre and shop where you can buy their fabulous wines and lots of lovely other local products, a mixture of vine varieties and their home. Chris' family and the story of how they came to own and live at the vineyard is fascinating. Christ took us on his personal journey around the vineyard which was full of knowledge, fun tales, extensive horticultural facts and a willingness to receive our huge range of questions.
The vineyard has a great array of grapes all grown on vines of varying age and flavour. Not only do I now know lots more about how vines grow, but we were treated to the most beautiful rainbow - I can't promise that for everyone on the tour but it was really special
We were treated to a peek behind the scenes in the winery where Chris works his magic creating existing and new wines. A very impressive set up with complex and mysterious science at work (and a lot of know how)
And on to the tasting. Clearly the most important part of the tour. A wonderful selection of very different wines were sampled. We particularly enjoyed Madeleine Angevine which Astley pair with our smoked salmon which changes the flavour immediately. Also the Branwen rose stood out as such an unusual and delicious flavour (reminding us of an alternative to a Kir).
What lucky smokehouse owners we are to enjoy this fabulous tour.
If you fancy visiting yourself (I haven't spoilt the tour, I promise there is so much to see and learn - it's a must) of if you fancy ordering yourself a bottle of excellent British wine or if you want to call in to their shop you can find out more by visiting their website
click here to visit Astley Vineyard website
We were lucky enough to share our tour with the hugely talented people from Friar Street Kitchen in Worcester. They use a huge range of local products - our Apple cured salmon is a regular feature to their menu - in a beautiful cosy restaurant (our staff are big fans). They have Astley Vineyard wines on their drinks menu so if you want a chance to taste more local Worcestershire products this is highly recommended by us
Click here to visit Friar Street Kitchen Website
Also on our tour we chatted with the lovely people from Worcester Tourist Information Centre who not only recommed Astley Vineyard tours but also sell their wines in the visitors centre. If you want to find out more about Worcestershire venues, visitors centres, events and places to stay you can visit their webiste: