Flashback Friday Travel 32 – Three Choirs Vineyard

A few years ago as a birthday present I was given a vine to adopt, at the Three Choirs Vineyard in the UK between Gloucester and the Forest of Dean.  We all know how I love a vineyard visit as part of a holiday so this was an inspired present from my friends!  A little bit of investigation and hey presto – the vineyard has rooms!  Perfect!  We booked ourselves in one weekend.

At the Three Choirs there is a small row of rooms which are all south facing with terraces that look onto the vines.  The rooms are comfortable and not unreasonably priced and the terrace really does make it – a gorgeous spot for a glass of something chilled (from the shop) while you enjoy the view or read a book.  There are also lodges dotted around the grounds which are incredibly private – we didn’t spot any while we were roaming around in the vines, but the pictures above from the hotel’s website look smart.  There is an onsite restaurant that we dined in – we were there in the early summer and so it wasn’t busy.  The food was good and the vineyard view continues.  There is something very relaxing about being in a vineyard!

As part of my sponsorship gift we had a tour of the vineyard as well as a tasting.  All very enjoyable.  The vineyard is very popular and has been commercialised sensitively.  We really enjoyed the tour – typically we go straight for the tasting, so it was good to learn about viticulture for once!  There is a good choice of wines to taste and we took our glasses and tasting notes out into the garden to enjoy slowly in the sunshine.  We also had a potter around the vineyard with a glass of sparkling wine to choose a vine to adopt and put my name on it!One of the selling points of visiting this particular vineyard was its proximity to the Forest of Dean.  We both enjoy our mountain biking and so we made the most of some of the trail centres nearby.  Our car had actually broken down on the way to the vineyard – thankfully very near an Audi garage.  Our car had two bikes on the back on a tow bar mounted carrier, so we were given an A8 or A7 which was the only car that could carry both the bikes inside it!  Very kind – in fact we ended up keeping the car for weeks whilst ours holidayed in Gloucester!

A good idea for a staycation – what interests me now having had another look at the Three Choirs website is that they now own Wickham Vineyard near us.  We’ve been here many times for parties, dinner and tastings and so it will be interesting to see how it does under its new ownership.