“Penicillin cures but wine makes people happy”
Alexander Fleming
My friend, who has lived in Australia for the last four years, has been back in the UK over the festive period so we thought we’d use one of our catch-ups to get out of London and do something fun. After much deliberation, we settled on Dorking due to its close proximity to London and the presence of Denbies and a large number of pubs!
We stayed in the newly refurbished White Horse (bespokehotels.com/dorking-white-horse), which had lots of lovely touches in the room such as Dickens books and horse shaped shortbread. The bed was super soft and we loved all the equine touches in the bar/restaurant.
The next morning, we headed off to Denbies, which is one of the largest wine producers in the UK. I am a member of the loyalty club – well worth the £25 annual fee. We had an informative tour which included a film on the history of the vineyard, followed by a tour of the working winery and then a tasting. We had opted for the classic tasting, trying two whites and a rose in the cellar room, with beautiful barrels as the decoration. I am definitely going to return in warmer weather when you can have an outdoor train tour through the beautiful vineyard setting. After our tour we treated ourselves to a glass of Denbies award winning sparkling wine in the cafe.
We then had a lovely lunch before strolling through Dorking, browsing the antique shops with a quick pit stop in a pub or two… The museum was closed as it was midweek so it looks like I have a few good excuses to pop to Dorking again soon!
