TNWG Wine Times: Ep 64: The Great Yorkshire Wine and Fizz Festival

A fortnight ago, I spent a Saturday afternoon on the lawns at Yorkshire Heart Vineyard in Nun Monkton, glass in hand, for the third annual Great Yorkshire Wine & Fizz Festival. It's a small event by national standards but was still attended by hundreds and those camping overnight too! It's also one of the clearest signals I've seen yet that Yorkshire wine has stopped being a curiosity and started being a category.

'You can't make good wine up North'

'You can't produce wines in Yorkshire, are you mad?'

'It's not real wine though is it, it's a gimmick'

NO. NO. NO. This is just wrong and I am going to tell you why....

The festival itself

The festival ran as part of English Wine Week, organised by the Yorkshire Vineyard Community — an organised alliance of growers including Yorkshire Heart itself, Goose Beck, Laurel Vines, Little Wold, Knotfield Vines, Malton Vineyard, Carlton Towers, Ryedale, High Cayton, Robin Hood's Bay and Towthorpe. A two-hour tasting session ran through the early afternoon, with the chance to talk directly to winemakers, before the tents gave way to bottle and glass sales and live music into the evening.

English wine has spent two decades building credibility around sparkling wine from the South Downs and Kent. Yorkshire, further north and cooler, has had a harder story to tell. Events like this are how a region without a Champagne-adjacent chalk seam builds its own identity instead of borrowing someone else's. It's also worth noting that the wider Yorkshire Wine Trail launched its own passport scheme for visitors this spring, so the festival sits inside a genuinely coordinated push to put the region on the map. See https://discover.yorkshirewinetrail.co.uk/ for more details of how you can explore the trail!

11 vineyards, 1 big afternoon - and a driver to take me home!

Part of the joy of a festival like this is that it compresses a full county's worth of vineyard-hopping into a single lawn - the best bit, was I had 'support crew' that drove me to and from, so I could enjoy the wines thoroughly! So let's take a look at what I found, shall we....

Yorkshire Heart - the host of the event and also the vineyard that has also appeared on The Andy and Olly Show Podcast too - way back in Series 1! Their story is what we in the North would say is 'proper'. It started in 2000 by winemaker Gillian Spakouskas with 35 vines as a hobby in the garden. Fast forward to now, and they have 29,000 vines. They produce a full range of sparkling, reds, whites and rose wines, even orange wines and did I mention they have a brewery too! The event was hosted around their 'Winehouse Cafe' and its Seyval Blanc-led sparkling picked up gold at the Glass of Bubbly Awards in 2024.

My favourite wine from Yorkshire Heart: It was a lovely sunny day and therefore, you couldn't ask for a better combo than a glass of the Sparkling Rose Vintage 2018 'Kathleen' Traditional Method.

Knotfield Vines - A small two acre plot created by Sophie Ellis and Laura Tillotson in 2022. They specialise in traditional method sparkling wine and known for using grape varietals like Seyval Blanc and they also have a berry and elderflower rose. The rose did win silver from @WineGB and has also been favourably mentioned by Michelin starred chef Tommy Banks.

Wine tasted from Knotfield: Interestingly, the Rose Brut 2024 was the first wine that I had on the day and I was literally the first person in the queue which probably did a slight disservice to the sparkling as it had just been opened. Very refreshing nonetheless and something for the radar. I suspect as this evolves over time and more vintages, will end up being a showstopper.

Robin Hood's Bay Vineyard - part of the Sheveling Group (which encompasses Holmfirth Vineyard) - the vineyard at Robin Hood's Bay was planted in 2017 above the village on the North Yorkshire coast on what is a 42 acre former farm diversification project, growing both red and white varietals. This is one of the most northerly vineyards in Europe and having received critical acclaim from WineGB for their wines - I was keen to get involved.

My favourite wine from Robin Hood's Bay: A sparkling Brut Rondo 2023 - I am a BIG fan of darker coloured roses and given this is made from Rondo, knew it would have some character to it. I like colour in the glass (so sadly Oz, in this instance, I disagree with you).

Ryedale Vineyard - another vineyard that is one of the most northerly commercial vineyards in Britain, run by the Fletcher family at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds near Malton. 15,000 vines across a whopping 18 varietals which do include both PIWIs and some more well known global varietals such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. They are all hand processed and there is even a cider being made too. With some fun names for wines, it's got to be the best named wines of any vineyard on show. Also on Sunday 2nd August they are celebrating Yorkshire Day at the vineyard - a FREE event!

My favourite wine from Ryedale - Yorkshire's Lass - a blend of Bacchus, Ortega and Siegerebbe, floral, minerality and smoky, all in a glass. Lovely combination.

Carlton Towers - Probably the most picturesque setting for a vineyard 'up Norf' with a walled kitchen garden which is on a 250 acre Carlton Towers estate. It was planted in 2016 by Lord and Lady Gerald Fitzalan-Howard with Auxerrois and Pinot Noir. Production is not huge with around 2,000 bottles produced per year.

Wine from Carlton Towers - they were showcasing (with great enthusiasm), the 2022 Rose Sparkling Brut at the show, and it was 'very palatable' - high acidity and refreshing too.

Goose Beck Vineyards - a family run site outside of Bilton-in-Ainsty up in the Vale of York, planted predominantly with disease-resistant PIWI varietals based on organic, sustainable principles following on from the family's previous life as sheep farmers. This was the surprise package for me and indeed, it has only been open for a few months with their wine releases too. In 2021, the first vines went in the ground and fast forward to today, they have 14,000 with 13 different varietals.

My favourite wine from Goose Beck: Wow the Solaris blends were good. One is even aged in an egg! My big favourite has to be the egg aged Solaris blend. A true winner on the day for me.

High Cayton Estate - a boutique vineyard set within the folds of the family farm outside of Harrogate. The vineyards overlook historic fish ponds, they are literally producing their first wines - in the form of a still Bacchus and a still Solaris.

My favourite wine from High Cayton - I have tried many a Bacchus in the UK and this one surprised me once more. Yes it has that lovely dry, aromatic 'hedgerow' effect but with fresh floral and elderflower notes, coupled with more grassy overtones.

Towthorpe Vineyard - Peter Kirk is the man behind this brand, as well as being co-owner of Vinehouse UK, a vine importer and vineyard management business. Planted from 2018 with 12 different grape varietals assessing the best potential in the climate, Peter has brought a great array of wines. 'Origins' for example a 100% Solaris all the way across the spectrum to what was arguably the best red on show '54 degrees North' which is a Rondo, Divico and Dornfelder blend. Absent from the show but with my fingers crossed, I'm hoping to see the Cabernet Franc before long too!

My favourite wine from Towthorpe: The 54 degrees North. The best red in show in my view and a great example of utilising a fairly unknown (outside of Switzerland) grape in Divico. This is brilliant slightly chilled too.

Little Wold Vineyard - Established in 2012 on the Yorkshire Wolds Way with sweeping views of the Humber, they have a whopping 30,000 vines growing Phoenix, Solaris, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. They have a good array of sparkling and still wines on offer and the labelling is top notch too!

My favourite wine from Little Wold: The 'Poppy Hill Rose' - a lovely 10% ABV rose which has been an award winner, a great example of a supple rose.

Malton Vineyard - a small 3 acre hillside vineyard site on the Howardian Hills run by Viv and Phil Clarkson, planted predominantly with the Solaris varietal.

My favourite wine from Malton - a wine called 'Musley Bank' was lovely and crisp - it reminded me of early picked chardonnay, very crisp and almost green apples in a glass. Something different.

Laurel Vines - run by Ian Sargent now has 15,500 vines expanding into 12 different varietals including the 3 Champagne varietals. It sits on the area of Aike, Driffield which is underlain with Cretaceous Chalk. There was a vast array of wines on show from Ortega, Madeline Angevine and Solaris in whites to an English Sparkling, Pinot Noir Rose, Rondo Rose, Pinot Noir Red and Barn Owl Red too.

My favourite wine from Laurel Vines - Despite liking them all, I will surprise some by saying my favourite on the day was Ortega - a lovely zesty expression and a grape varietal that is sometimes overlooked as being quite expressive.

Overall Winners

If I had to pick an overall winner for white it would be Goose Beck and for red, Towthorpe - but why pick, why not enjoy all! They are all winners - showcasing Yorkshire at its best!

The bigger picture

Yorkshire's climate is marginal for viticulture in a way that Kent and Sussex's isn't — cooler, wetter, shorter growing seasons. That marginality used to be the argument against Yorkshire wine. Increasingly, it's part of the pitch: leaner, higher-acid wines that suit a different table than the ripe, fruit-forward style further south. A festival that puts 11 producers side by side, under one roof, lets that story be told collectively rather than by any single vineyard trying to make the case alone.

Walking between the tents, one thing became obvious: this isn't a region chasing a single house style. There's real variety in the approach. Some producers, like Knotfield and Carlton Towers, have gone all-in on traditional-method sparkling, betting that Yorkshire's acidity is its trump card.

Others, like Ryedale, Laurel and Towthorpe, are hedging across a dozen-plus varieties to see what the site actually wants to grow.

And a few, like Goose Beck, have leaned into disease-resistant PIWI varieties as much for sustainability as for flavour. Solaris keeps coming up as something of a house grape for the county — cool-climate tolerant, early-ripening, and versatile enough to run from crisp still whites through to fuller-bodied and even orange styles. If Yorkshire ends up with a signature variety the way Sussex has claimed Chardonnay-Pinot-Meunier blends, Solaris is the leading candidate.

It's also a smart commercial move. Corporate hospitality and events increasingly want a "local" story, not just a good bottle. A Yorkshire-grown wine served at a Sheffield or Leeds event does something a Kent sparkling can't: it ties the drink to the room. And the range on show at the festival means that "local" doesn't have to mean one style - there's a 'fit' for all.

So, get out there and start tasting these wines - they really are IMPRESSIVE!

If you're planning a corporate event this summer and want to build a genuinely local, Yorkshire-grown wine into the tasting, that's exactly the kind of session I put together at The Northern Wine Guy. Whether it's a polished sparkling for a client reception or a full guided tasting that walks a room through what makes this county's wine distinctive, get in touch and I'll talk you through what's drinking well right now.

Many thanks for reading!

Andy aka The Northern Wine Guy