Sharpham Wine and Cheese: Tasting the Dart Valley
The Dart Valley does a particular trick well. South-facing slopes, slate-rich soil, a tidal river that warms the air a couple of degrees, and the long Devon summers all add up to grape-growing country. Sharpham wine and cheese has been quietly proving the point since 1981, when Maurice Ash planted the first vines at Sharpham House and brought a herd of Jersey cows down from Essex to produce the original Sharpham Brie. Forty-something years later, the wine and the cheese are still being made within sight of each other, with the same team and the same grapes, just on the next bend of the river.
If you are putting a Dart Valley weekend together, an afternoon tasting at Sandridge Barton, the new home of Sharpham Wine, is the obvious anchor.
The Move to Sandridge Barton
In 2022, after a long planning project, Sharpham Wine relocated three kilometres downriver to Sandridge Barton at Stoke Gabriel. The original Sharpham vineyards were preserved, but the new site gave the team a purpose-built winery, a tasting barn, a restaurant, and proper facilities for visitors. The location is genuinely lovely: a south-facing bowl above the tidal Dart, with vines running down toward the water. Sharpham Cheese is still made just upriver at the original Sharpham Estate dairy, using milk from the original Jersey herd.
What this means for you as a visitor is that you can now do both halves of the story in one place. The full Sharpham wine range, plus Sharpham Brie, Rustic, Elmhirst and the seasonal cheeses, all available to taste, buy and eat on site.
What to Taste and What It Costs
Self-guided tastings start at around £15 for a flight of four wines, which you take at your own pace with notes provided. The full guided tour and tasting (around £30 to £35) takes you through the winery, explains the techniques, and walks you out to the vines. Book the guided tour ahead, particularly on weekends; the self-guided flights are usually walk-up friendly midweek.
The wine to try first is the Sharpham Bacchus, a fragrant, dry white that is the closest thing the estate has to a signature bottle. There is also a respectable Pinot Noir, a sparkling traditional-method blend, and the rose-coloured Dart Valley Reserve. Bottles from around £18 to £35 at the cellar door.
For cheese, ask for a small (around £10) or large (around £18) Devon cheeseboard in the tasting barn, which pairs the Sharpham range with crackers and chutney. The Brie is rich and buttercup yellow from the Jersey milk; the Rustic is firmer with a nettle finish; and look out for seasonal washed-rind cheeses if they have them in.
The Restaurant and the Walk
On site, Circa at Sandridge Barton serves a daily-changing lunch menu using estate produce and surrounding farms. Two courses around £35 (£££). The terrace looks across the vineyard to the river and is one of the better lunch views in South Devon. Book ahead, especially Friday to Sunday.
If you have the legs, follow the woodland trail from the cellar door through the estate to the new vineyards. It takes about 45 minutes round trip, is buggy- and dog-friendly with care, and gives you the geography in a way the tasting room cannot.
How to Get There and When to Visit
Sandridge Barton sits at Lower Well Farm, Stoke Gabriel, postcode TQ9 6RL, about a fifteen-minute drive from Totnes via the lanes. There is free parking on site. By bike, the lanes are quiet but hilly. By boat, you can take the river ferry to Stoke Gabriel from Totnes Quay in summer (operated by Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company) and walk twenty minutes up the hill.
Opening hours are typically 10am to 5pm daily, with longer hours of 10am to 8pm on Friday and Saturday in season. The site is dog-friendly outside and on the terrace, less so in the tasting room itself. Always check the current schedule and book before you set off.
Pairing the Visit With the Rest of Your Weekend
The classic Dart Valley pairing is a morning at Totnes Market, lunch at Sandridge Barton, then a slow drive back via Ashprington for a pint at the Waterman’s Arms. If you have a day, stretch it: walk up the Dart from Totnes to the Sharpham peninsula in the morning, ferry across or drive round to Sandridge Barton for an afternoon tasting, and dinner back at the Bull Inn or Circa in Totnes town centre.
Sharpham wine and cheese is one of the genuine reasons people make the trip to this corner of Devon. It is a small story (one family, one estate, one Jersey herd) that has somehow held its quality for forty years while everything around it changed. Worth a serious afternoon. If you want to think about where to stay nearby, have a look at our country house stays in the South Hams guide.