{"id":16343,"date":"2026-05-03T20:25:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T20:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/16343\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T20:25:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T20:25:24","slug":"the-uks-best-winery-35-wine-as-good-as-anything-from-france-or-italy-uk-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/16343\/","title":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s \u2018best winery\u2019 – \u00a335 wine as good as anything from France or Italy | UK | Travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK\u2019s best wine <\/a>is made somewhere you might not expect, but it is as good as anything from France, Italy, or Spain. Vagabond\u2019s Solena has been in the works by head winemaker <\/a>Jose Quintana since 2018, with the first batch released in 2022.<\/p>\n

It is multi-award-winning, scoring gold for best still white at the Independent English Wine <\/a>Awards (IEWA), as well as best English innovative still white and best still at the WineGB Awards. The \u00a335 Solena has a \u201ccomplex and heady\u201d nose of orange, grapefruit, dried yuzu, ripe peach, smoke, incense, and aged black tea. The palate is a \u201cfusion\u201d of spiced peach and dried citrus peels. Vineyard <\/a>magazine\u2019s reviewer said the Solena made him go \u201ca little weak at the knees\u201d, saying it is \u201cso unique and also so tear-jerkingly beautiful it defies comprehension\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cToothsome, invigorating, kaleidoscopic and with a peacock\u2019s tail of tone and shimmer, this landmark wine ought to inspire even the most risk-averse dullard to have a bloody go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IEWA <\/a>said: \u201cThe wine is unfined and unfiltered and has a colour and complexion that looks quite unlike any other wine I have tried. It\u2019s an absolute knock-out release!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Vagabond topped the IEWA\u2019s 2025 scoreboard with five gold trophies, seven silver, and five bronze for a total of 90 points, beating out older, more traditional wineries.<\/p>\n

The company is the UK\u2019s largest urban winery, with a 6,000 sq ft space in Canada Water, London. The space has a working 100-tonne winery, a Vagabond bar with the brand\u2019s signature self-pour wine machines, and multiple event and private hire spaces.<\/p>\n

All of Vagabond\u2019s vineyards are within two hours of London. Grapes are hand-harvested and transported to the winery, where they are processed in a mix of oak and stainless steel to build texture and mouthfeel in the wines.<\/p>\n

Wine tourism in the UK is booming, with a 55% increase in visitor numbers since 2022, according to WineGB \u2013 reaching over 1.5 million wine tourism visits last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s best wine is made somewhere you might not expect, but it is as good as anything…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9313,4697,9312,17,9314,9311,4194],"class_list":{"0":"post-16343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-jose-quintana","9":"tag-london","10":"tag-solena-wine","11":"tag-spain","12":"tag-uk-wine-awards","13":"tag-vagabond-winery","14":"tag-wine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}