Our Story

Our Story

Kent’s original vineyard, Biddenden has been owned and managed by the Barnes family since 1969.  Today the vineyard is run by the second & third generations of the family, drawing on many years of experience in winemaking at Biddenden.

Originally home to a 40 acre apple orchard, the Barnes family started to consider diversifying the farm in the late 1960s as apple prices began to decline. After listening to a feature on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour programme about English vineyards being replanted, Joyce Barnes was inspired to turn to viticulture. In 1969, one third of an acre of vines was planted and Biddenden Vineyards was born.

Today our single estate vineyard spans 23 acres of gentle south facing slopes situated in a sheltered valley, just outside the picturesque Wealden village of Biddenden. 12 different grape varieties are grown here to produce our array of award-winning White, Rosé, Red and Sparkling English wines.

From the first Biddenden wine, which was bottled in 1972, production has now grown to around 80,000 bottles per year. All vine work on the estate is still carried out by hand, including pruning, canopy management and picking, with harvest running from mid September right through to November.

Great effort is made to ensure that the estate wines produced are of the highest quality, which is reflected by the number of awards we receive.

We look forward to welcoming you at Biddenden soon. 

Hear it through the grapevine

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What our customers say

Biddenden produces the finest quality juices which are unsurpassed. This, coupled with excellent customer service and fast delivery times, make them unbeatable as far as I'm concerned.

A lovely shop, with tables outside, in the heart of the Kent Weald. An enormous range of their own wines and juices, as well as other luxury groceries including condiments, sweets and more. Efficient and pleasant servers are there to help. Well worth a visit!

Very nice cider delivered very promptly. Will definitely be placing further orders.

Delivery always swift and efficient.. perfect transaction. As always... LOVE this, company