Harrow and Hope

The Chiltern Hills above Marlow provide one of the most visually compelling vineyard settings in England. The steep south-facing slopes fall toward the Thames through beech woodland, the chalky soil gleams white in low autumn sunlight, and the proximity to the river gives the air a particular quality that is different from anything in Sussex or Kent. Henry Laithwaite, son of Tony Laithwaite who founded Direct Wines and built the Laithwaites empire into one of the world's largest wine retail businesses, planted his first vines here in 2010, and by the time WineGB named him Winery of the Year in 2019, he had demonstrated that the Thames Valley's overlooked chalk was as capable of producing serious sparkling wine as any vineyard in England.

The geology at Harrow and Hope is flint-and-clay over chalk, which gives the wines a slightly different character from the purer chalk estates of Sussex and Hampshire. There is a hint of weight and texture in the mid-palate, alongside the fine-bubbled precision that chalk always provides, and the wines express this combination in different ways across the range. The Blanc de Blancs is the most mineral and tense; the Blanc de Noirs Pinot, which won WineGB Gold in 2020, shows the Pinot Noir's red-fruit character in a sparkling context; and the Wyfold Brut is the most accessible expression, a Champagne-method blend designed to be opened without ceremony.

The single-vineyard, sparkling-only commitment is a deliberate statement. In a region where many producers offer still wine to supplement their sparkling income, Harrow and Hope makes only méthode traditionnelle wines from the 6.5 hectares above Pump Lane North, a decision that clarifies the estate's ambition. The sloping site looks down toward the Thames at Marlow, and on a clear day the view stretches south toward the Surrey Hills in a way that makes the estate feel simultaneously like a serious working vineyard and a particularly beautiful corner of England that happens to have wine growing in it.

Tours start at £25 per person and run on a seasonal schedule, with wines also available from Laithwaites, Wine Direct, and Jeroboams. For wine enthusiasts based in the Thames Valley or driving west from London, Harrow and Hope offers a genuinely world-class sparkling wine experience at a latitude that would have seemed implausible to English viticulturists even thirty years ago.