Chiltern Valley Winery and Walking

A fabulous weekend of wine tasting and walking!

Actually, the main focus was on the wine tasting followed by a short walk in the picturesque Chiltern hills of Buckinghamshire…

Known for its rolling ‘quintessential English’ countryside and historic villages the Chilterns stretch across the counties of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire and is known as an ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’.

The Chilterns are not too far from where Chris and I live and as such are easy for us to get to. Last year, while Chris had Covid, I did a couple of Chiltern walks: Wendover Woods and Pulpit Hill

Chris and I were fortunate to have been given a Virgin experience voucher as a previous Christmas present and after browsing the options we came across the Chiltern Valley wine tasting experience and decided to expand this into a short weekend break. We booked the wine tasting and had also pre-booked a room in the adjoining Bed and Breakfast accommodation. Full details can be found on their website and you can book the experience and any required rooms directly if you wish to.

Our wine tasting experience began in a large heated marquee where Stuart the guide introduced himself to 10 wine tasting participants. He began with an engaging introduction with some history of the Chiltern Valley Winery, which can also be found on their website.

Next we went outside to the vineyard but no grapes to be seen on the vines in February 🍇 Stuart explained the first vines were planted in 1982.

We had an explanation of the grape picking and pressing process and then moved back inside and onto the beer process in the brewery section. All of this took about an hour before we got to the important part…

Yep… the tasting 😋

We each sat at a table with a tasting sheet, some cheese and biscuits and empty glasses in eager anticipation of sampling some award winning English wines.

Stuart then went round providing generous samples of 4 different white wines, explaining about each of them as he did so. This was followed by 4 different beers and finished with 4 different liquers!

At the end of the wine tasting, unsurprisingly we were led through the gift shop. With its tropical aromas and crisp dry finish, Bacchus was our favourite so we purchased a bottle to take home with us. Stuart had explained that Bacchus was the Roman God of Wine and Pleasure!

Yum! This was my favourite liquer as tasted. Apparently this was used in the hip flasks of the local pheasant hunters and was enjoyed so much that there remains still a healthy local pheasant population!

Chris enjoyed the Blood Orange liquer which comes in an attractive square bottle. Another purchase from the shop 😁

Having first arrived in drizzle we were pleased that the weather had brightened up a couple of hours later.

Following the tasting session our room was ready and we were able to check in.

There was no onsite bar or restaurant however the resident food truck was open which sold ‘award winning’ coffee and a range of home made cakes, savoury toasties, soup and suchlike.

Having already had a coffee and a snack earlier, we decided another coffee was in order which we consumed in the now sunny courtyard. We chatted for quite a while with another couple who we had met during the tasting experience and who were also staying for the night.

The winery is in a remote and isolated spot at the top of a hill within the Chiltern Valley and after the tasting session and then the coffee we decided to explore our wider surroundings on foot.

We headed out through Cadmoor Wood, following an easy footpath which led us along a ridge with trees either side.

From the woodland path we emerged at a  clearing which offered panoramic views across the Hambleden Valley. Hambleden is often cited to be one of the most picturesque villages of the Chilterns.

However we didn’t walk as far as Hambleden as we didn’t have a proper map with us and my subscription to OS Maps had just expired. We continued our short circular walk down through the valley.

Not wishing to get lost we decided to use Google Maps and we made our way back up along the quiet single track road.

And got plenty of exercise walking back up the hill as we did so!

The winery had an arrangement with a local pub in nearby Hambleden whereby we could choose either 2 or 3 courses from a set meal. The cost included a pre-arranged taxi which would take us to and from the pub. This seemed like a good idea and we had pre-booked this for the Saturday evening.

Together with 2 other couples, the 6 of us were collected by the taxi at 6:30 pm and taken to the Stag & Huntsman in Hambleden. The food and the service were both good (not excellent… just good) but the overall cost was expensive so this ‘deal’ didn’t really offer value for money. However it was convenient and we were collected at about 9:15 pm for the return taxi journey back to our accommodation.

Summary

We both enjoyed our wine tasting experience which was fun and informative and we would recommend this. Set in a lovely stone cottage, the accommodation was also good. I felt a bit ‘ripped off’ by the evening meal and in hindsight, it would be easy to book your own meal and taxi in any of the local pubs.

Next up… our short visit to nearby Henley-on-Thames.