Welsh Wine Trail

How to Complete

5 steps curated by Wine Memories

1. 🍷 1

   Find the Wine That Beat France — Blind

   wine $$

   A milking parlour dream became a Decanter gold medal. Here's where it happened.

   📍 WHERE: White Castle Vineyard, The Croft Farm, Llanvetherine NP7 8RA (between Abergavenny and Monmouth, south-facing hillside). Tours run Fri–Sun & Bank Holidays at 11:30am and 3pm — book ahead at whitecastlevineyard.com/book-a-vineyard-tour/.

   💡 WHAT: In 2021, Robb and Nicola Merchant submitted their 2018 Pinot Noir Reserve to the Decanter World Wine Awards — the world's biggest wine competition. In a blind tasting against France, America, and the rest of the world, this wine from a 5-acre field in Monmouthshire won Gold. It was the FIRST Welsh wine to ever win gold at Decanter. The tasting notes: raspberry, cherry, strawberry with forest floor, tobacco, and vanilla spice. Robb will tell you himself — these are his vines, his tour, his story. In 1993 he and Nicola converted a milking parlour into their home. They didn't plant a single vine until 2008. That's 15 years of dreaming before the first harvest.

   🎯 HOW: Book the Deluxe Tour (last Friday of each month, April–September, 3pm) for the full arc: sparkling wine on arrival, walk through the vines, then taste 6 wines including the Pinot Noir Précoce. If standard tour: ask specifically for the Decanter Gold 2018 reserve or most recent Pinot Noir — they do periodic library releases. The cheese platter with local Monmouthshire cheese is worth adding.

   🔄 BACKUP: If tours are sold out, the shop is open Fri–Sun 10am–5pm. Walk in, buy a bottle of Pinot Noir Précoce (around £20–25), and taste it outside looking at the same south-facing vines that beat France.

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2. 📜 2

   Taste the Wine Where the Monks Planted First

   history $

   Parva Farm's vines grow on the slope the Tintern Abbey monks cultivated 900 years ago.

   📍 WHERE: Parva Farm Vineyard, Tintern NP16 6SQ — on the south-facing hillside directly above Tintern village, with the abbey visible through the valley below. Shop open daily except Wednesday, 11:30am–5:30pm (summer). IMPORTANT: check status before visiting — currently closed until Easter 2026. Call Judith Dudley: 07484 670302 or email parvafarm@hotmail.com.

   💡 WHAT: This isn't just a vineyard on a hill above an old abbey. Archaeological evidence suggests these terraces are the ORIGINAL vineyard of Tintern's Cistercian monks, who founded the abbey in 1131. The monks came from France — from L'Aumône, near Chartres — and they knew how to grow vines. The self-guided trail ends at a spring whose stonework may be Roman in origin. The monks possibly built it. 4,500 vines of 15 varieties now grow where medieval brothers tended their rows. Parva Farm's speciality is Bacchus — zesty, aromatic, made for the same misty, cool air the monks breathed.

   🎯 HOW: Take the self-guided vineyard trail (£2.50/person) and walk among the rows. The view down to the abbey is your reward. In the shop, entry and wine tastings are free — try the Bacchus dry white and the Pinot Noir rosé. Then buy a bottle. Ask for the wine that 'grew where the monks did.' The shop will know exactly what you mean.

   🔄 BACKUP: If Parva Farm remains closed, the abbey ruins themselves (Tintern Abbey, Cadw site, free to walk grounds, parking nearby) are still the essential stop — read Wordsworth's 1798 poem on your phone standing in the ruins while the Wye slides past. Then buy Parva Farm wine online to taste at home.

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3. ⛰️ 3

   Climb to Where the Devil Preached — Then Drink

   adventure Free

   The best view of Tintern Abbey costs nothing but two hours of your legs. At the top, open the Bacchus.

   📍 WHERE: Devil's Pulpit, Offa's Dyke path above Tintern. Start from Tintern Abbey car park (NP16 6TE) and follow signs for Offa's Dyke north. Or start from Tidenham Chase car park on the B4228 for a shorter approach from the English side.

   💡 WHAT: The limestone rock jutting from the cliffs 300 metres above the Wye is called the Devil's Pulpit — because legend has it this is where the devil himself used to sit and PREACH TO THE MONKS below, trying to lure them from their faith. Look straight down and you'll see the monks' handiwork: Tintern Abbey, the grandest Cistercian ruin in Wales, its Gothic arches still reaching for a sky it's been open to since Henry VIII dissolved it in 1536. On July 13, 1798, William Wordsworth stood somewhere in this valley and composed the entire poem now called 'Tintern Abbey' — in his head, beginning to end, without writing a single word until he reached Bristol. He published it in Lyrical Ballads that same year and invented English Romantic poetry. You are standing in the landscape that poem describes.

   🎯 HOW: Circular walk is 8.2km with 338m of elevation gain, roughly 2.5–3 hours. It is steep and can be muddy — wear proper shoes. At the top, at the Pulpit: open the bottle of Parva Farm Bacchus you bought below. Taste it. The grapes grew on the monks' old slope, maybe 500 vertical metres from where you're sitting. The monks who the devil was supposedly tempting. Drink slowly.

   🔄 BACKUP: If you can't do the full climb, the view from the opposite bank of the Wye — from the Wye Valley Walk running south from Tintern — gives a strong profile view of the abbey ruins with far less elevation gain.

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4. 📜 4

   Discover the Wine Wales Had Before England

   history $

   Abergavenny Market Hall. Local cheese. The story of a Marquess, a silent gardener, and 240 bottles.

   📍 WHERE: Abergavenny Market Hall, Market Street, Abergavenny NP7 5SD. Open Tuesday, Friday, Saturday (general market). Walk the covered hall, then head to Madame Fromage (or the market cheese stalls) for the essential purchase.

   💡 WHAT: Here's the thing that English wine people don't love to hear: Wales had the UK's first commercial vineyard 77 years before England did. In 1873, the Marquess of Bute — the man who also built the gothic fantasy of Castell Coch castle outside Cardiff — sent his head gardener Andrew Pettigrew to France to learn viticulture. Pettigrew spoke no French. He watched. He returned and in spring 1875 planted 2,000 vines on the Castell Coch hillside. The first harvest, 1877: 240 bottles. By 1893, the vineyard was paying for itself — Pettigrew reported this to the Royal Horticultural Society. The grapes were pressed at Cardiff Castle and sold through London merchants. It all ended in 1914: WWI cut off the sugar supply needed for fermentation. The vines were grubbed up in 1920. Then in 1952, a Hampshire general planted Hambledon Vineyard and everyone called it England's first commercial vineyard — which it was. But the Welsh were there first.

   🎯 HOW: Buy a wedge of 'Tintern' cheese at the market — a Caerphilly-style Welsh cheddar spiked with chives and shallots that were originally farmed by the Tintern Abbey monks. This cheese is named for the abbey. This is your pairing cheese for the whole day — it goes with every Welsh white you'll taste. Then find Sugar Loaf Vineyard's wines at local shops in Abergavenny, or drive 10 minutes to Sugar Loaf Vineyard itself (Dummar Farm, Pentre Lane, NP7 7LA — open Wed–Sun from £5 for tableside tasting).

   🔄 BACKUP: If the market isn't running that day, the Abergavenny Co-op and local delis stock Welsh cheeses. The story of Lord Bute and Andrew Pettigrew can be pursued in person: Castell Coch is 30 minutes south by car (near Cardiff) and the vineyard slope is visible from the castle grounds.

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5. 🍷 5

   Toast the New Wave at Sugar Loaf

   Optional

   wine $

   Wales now has 56 vineyards. Sugar Loaf, in the Brecon Beacons, is where to understand why the whole world is about to notice.

   📍 WHERE: Sugar Loaf Vineyard, Dummar Farm, Pentre Lane, Abergavenny NP7 7LA. On the lower slopes of the Sugar Loaf mountain, inside the Brecon Beacons National Park. Open Wed–Sat 10:30am–5:30pm, Sun 11am–5pm.

   💡 WHAT: In 2017 there were 26 Welsh vineyards. By 2024 there were 56 — a doubling in seven years. The reason is climate: Wales sits at 51°N latitude, the outer edge of viable viticulture. But the Gulf Stream keeps the Atlantic coast warm enough, and the growing season has extended by four weeks since the 1970s. Sugar Loaf's five acres of vines grow on the south-facing slopes of an ancient volcanic mountain, inside a national park, and produce wines from Reichensteiner, Madeleine Angevine, Seyval Blanc, and Regent — varieties engineered to ripen before the October rains arrive. The café serves cream teas. The views across the Usk Valley are free.

   🎯 HOW: Ask for the tableside wine tasting — from £5 per person, with full tasting notes. Try the Regent (Wales's most reliably full-bodied red, deep and spiced) alongside any of the whites. The licensed café does local cheese platters — pair whatever you're tasting with the Tintern cheddar you bought at the market. Look north toward the mountain and south toward the Usk Valley. This is what terroir looks like before it's famous.

   🔄 BACKUP: If Sugar Loaf is closed (Mon–Tue they don't open), White Castle Vineyard's shop (10 minutes east) is your tasting alternative — open Fri–Sun. You've already been there, but the shop sells bottles from other Monmouthshire producers too.

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