Sharpham Partnership

Sharpham Estate is easy to get to if you’re driving from Totnes, and a taxi will get you there for £10−11 if you plan to sample some wine. When you get there, you don’t have to sit in the café, nor are you pressurised to buy food — we took a bag of our own supplies and used the tables (with sun umbrellas) to enjoy a picnic. It’s an accommodating place.
We paid £8.95 per person for a ‘Trek & Taste’ Gold session, which includes an unsupervised trek of the vineyard followed by the tasting of three wines and two cheeses. We enjoyed our walk around the vineyards, even though it was a very hot day. You can walk down to the water (the River Dart), where you can catch a glimpse of Sharpham House and watch boats go by. The vineyard itself grows four grape varieties: Madeleine Angevine, Phoenix, Pinot Noir and Dornfelder.
The tasting itself was a little disappointing, even though our lovely host was being somewhat generous; instead of tasting three wines, we were tasting six, which included two whites, two rosés and two reds. However, we were poured only enough for a sip, and we had to swap glasses with the person sat next to us to ensure we tasted everything. This wasn’t quite what we were expecting. It would have been nice to not have to share a glass with anyone and to actually taste the wine over two or three sips. Instead, they all ran into one another and our palates didn’t get used to any of them.
This didn’t make us want to buy any of the wine we’d tasted, especially as some of the bottles were expensive (most of the bottles I looked at in the shop were £15+). However, we can’t fault the knowledge and friendliness of the people who work there, and the location is gorgeous. However, value for money must play a part in your decision to rate this as a premium wine-​tasting event.