Taste some of England's finest wines and ales when you visit the vineyards, wineries and breweries in Maidstone.

Stunning Vineyards and Award-Winning Wines

Maidstone and the surrounding area has similar soils to the Champagne region in France and in consequence it is able to produce some very fine quality grapes resulting in exceptional wines. Balfour Winery on the Hush Heath Estate  near Staplehurst produces Balfour Brut Rose which won a Decanter Gold Award for its 2010 vintage. The colour is the palest pink with a very clean and crisp initial taste to the palette with a complex finish. Well worth a try and certainly rating amongst the finest wines produced in England.

A number of other wines and exceptional ciders are produced from Hush Heath Winery and a visit, tour and walk are highly recommended.

Close to Maidstone you will find Chapel Down Vineyards growing vines in the Kits Coty area, which because of the “terroir” and the local climate is producing some excellent wines. The award-winning Biddenden Vineyard which has lead wine production in Kent since the 1960’s when Mrs Barnes planted her first vines, is now in its third generation of family wine producers.  Ortega leads the collection of wines from Biddenden Vineyards and is a favourite  for local people.

The cellar doors of all of our local wineries are almost always open and beyond Maidstone but close by in Kent you will find Gusborne, Squerry and Simpson’s Wine Estate.  These have recently been joined by Domaine Evremond who are working in partnership with Champagne Taittinger.  Their investment and support for the local wine industry is a major confidence boost in the Kent quality wine production.

Discussing the wine partnership, Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, of Champagne Taittinger and Kent collaboration Domaine Evremond, said: “Kent is one of the warmest and driest counties of England, and we were delighted to find some beautiful land, on chalk, near the charming village of Chilham – we planted our first vines in May last year at Domaine Evremond. We were welcomed with open arms by the other producers in the region and I am delighted that we are joining forces with six of the top Kentish wineries in the spirit of friendship, to form the Wine Garden of England and work together proactively to promote the wonderful wines of the region.”

English Wine Week

Whilst English Wine Week is late May early June each year, a visit to one or more of our local wineries is educational, interesting and entertaining.  If you don’t want to come by car, put your bicycle on the train as most of the vineyards are within easy reach of train station, ride your bike there, do a little tasting, fill up your panniers, enjoy a little local produce for lunch along the way and return having had a great day out with wonderful memories.

Breweries and Distilleries

Maidstone has a long and interesting history in both distilling and brewing. 

Distilling

George Bishop was the original distiller in Maidstone in 1785 when he was producing approximately 5,000 gallons of gin a week.  This gin was akin to what we would know today a Geneva Gin and was at that time widely drunk by everyone because of the water quality at that time. The gin was then shipped down the River Medway where it went on it's onward journey, mostly to London but also to the Netherlands and France. Whist many distilleries have popped up around the UK, this distillery has an interesting story and history behind it, so taking the tour brings all this to life.  The original gin production site was behind the shops in Bank Street but The Maidstone Distillery can now be found in Market Buildings in the heart of town.

Marden a village close to Maidstone is home to Anno Distillers which offers some great gins and indeed the "strongest gin in the world", amongst some other very interesting flavours.  They also run workshops for people enjoy making their own gin.

Brewing

Maidstone was also famous for the Fremlin Brewery, which had the iconic elephant logo.  Whilst Fremlin Brewery no longer exists its history sits with us in daily use today. 

"Carol Rose, in her book Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopaedia, attributes the origin of the Gremlin of English folklore (malicious creatures said to be responsible for sabotaging aircraft) to a combination of the name of Grimm's Fairy Tales and the folklore surrounding Fremlin's beer; a favourite beverage of local Royal Air Force mechanics and pilots. Beginning as early as 1865, Fremlin’s Brewery company tradition included the fabled existence of an unseen, ambivalent house spirit named Robin Hodfellow or Hödfellow; the name being a probable conflation of the woodland sprite Robin Goodfellow and the popular legend of the kobold Hödekin as recorded by folklorist Thomas Keightley.

Hodfellow was said to be a biersal, a type of kobold; (a sprite stemming from Germanic mythology and surviving into modern times in German folklore) that inhabits breweries and beer cellars. Hodfellow was said to ride a miniature elephant (or sometimes was himself a miniature elephant) and kept the brewery machinery in working order when he was paid his due (in beer) and alternatively wrought havoc in the machinery works when not remunerated appropriately. Brewery workers and even publicans were said to leave small jars or dishes of beer out to appease Hodfellow, a tradition that survived at least into the late 20th century in some Maidstone and Canterbury pubs.

Author Roald Dahl is credited with getting the gremlins known outside the Royal Air Force. He would have been familiar with the brewery and the myth, having lived in Kent with his family for ten years from the age of 13 before writing his first children's novel, The Gremlins, in which "Gremlins" were tiny men who lived on RAF fighter stations and who regularly caused technical problems and mechanical damage that could not otherwise be explained.

Maidstone and the surrounding area still offers some amazing brews.  Within the town Goachers Ales are still producing beer and can be tasted at The Royal Paper Mill at Tovil, The Rifle Volunteers and The Flower Pot in Maidstone Town Centre and the Waltnut Tree at Barming and a variety of other pubs across Kent.  

The Musket Brewery can be found at Loddington Farm at Boughton Monchelsea, close to Maidstone.  The Armoury is an excellent tap room who offers great beer, great events, is family and dog friendly and everyone has a great time.