For almost 100 years, the Bantham Estate in Devon — 10 miles from Salcombe, one of the jewels of the South Hams AONB, and boasting one of the best beaches in Europe, according to Lonely Planet — had a pretty quiet time of it.
It was bought in 1922 by Lieutenant Commander Charles Evans, whose family owned and ran the estate until 2014, with the place if not quite frozen in time, then certainly preserved in spirit. Even a 2013 application to park a 'gastrobus' in the car park, selling refreshments to beachgoers, provoked furious complaints by some.
So it's fair to say that the estate's £11.5 million sale to Nicholas Johnston had local residents worried. Johnston and his family own the Great Tew Estate in the Cotswolds, and the people of Bantham worried that his arrival would herald new development, and that the 'Soho House effect' could change the village, and their way of life.
We won't go into the gory details of what happened next — a quick Google will offer up all manner of claims and counter-claims — but many of Johnston's ideas for change didn't come about, and at the tail end of 2024 the estate went on the market once again, with an asking price of £30 million. At the start of 2025 it was bought for an undisclosed sum by Chilton HomeFarms, owned by Harry Aubrey-Fletcher and his family, who said in a statement that 'the family have visited Bantham for many years and look forward to looking after this very special part of the South Hams'.
One thing the new owners don't want to do with the estate, however, is make wine — one of the things that the previous owner Johnston did successfully start up at Bantham. And so the estate's award-winning vineyard is now on the market via Knight Frank, with an asking price of £650,000.
The vineyard was only planted four years ago, in 2021, with 25,000 vines going into the ground in 11 blocks, all south-facing, and featuring a mix of Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir Précoce and Chardonnay grapes.
It's all started off extremely well, and the 2023 Pinot Gris — the produce of the first harvest — won a silver medal at the 2024 WineGB awards. The 2024 Pinot Gris was recently released, and the estate also produces a vermouth and, more unusually, a canned rosé spritz.
If you're wondering why they haven't produced a sparkling wine, well, they have: made via the traditional method, the bubbly is currently in tank and yet to be released to the market. The thought of new owners hosting a celebration (a vineyard-warming party?) with their own stuff sounds too good to be true.
The vineyard is actually split over two sites: the 19.85-acre West Buckland, which will be sold outright, and the 10.1 acre Lower Aunemouth, which is being sold on a leasehold basis. All the machinery is included, as is the stock from the latest harvest.
Clearly, buying and owning a vineyard of this size is not something for the amateur to attempt single-handed — but the idea of owning a slice of this beautiful land, and creating something equally wonderful from it, will be a dream for many.
The Bantham Vineyard is for sale via Knight Frank — see more details.
A vineyard of one's own?
English wine has been having a moment for at least a decade now, with our home-grown sparkling wine winning countless awards.
But if your wine-based dream is red rather than white, then a vineyard on the Continent, or even further afield, is the only realistic way forward for now.
There are actually a number of vineyards for sale through the Country Life International Property Portal at the moment.
For the high-roller, this €9.8 million Bordeaux estate — with 40 acres, a 10-bedroom property, three swimming pools and all sorts of other wonders — is a well-established producer of Bordeaux Supérieur that operates as both wine maker and hospitality business.
Why buy Claret when you can make your own?
It needn't cost that much to break in to the business, however: in Tuscany this house with both a vineyard and an olive grove is for sale at €1.795 million, though the wine production is very small scale, with just under an acre of vines.
The Tuscany farmhouse dream, plus your own wine.
At the other end of the scale on the wine-making side, Savills are selling a real rarity: a Cru Classé wine maker with almost 100-acres of vines in Provence, where producers including LVMH, Champagne Roederer and Groupe Pernod Ricard will be among your neighbours.
There are only a handful of Cru Classé wine makers in Provence — this is one of them.
And finally, if you want an option that lets you swap your suburban semi for a new life, this Portuguese property includes a fine five-bedroom house, a small vineyard of 1.5 acres, a pair of warehouses and a wine cellar in the renowned Douro Valley. The price? Just €750,000 — that's around £640,000 — via Christie's International Real Estate.
A vineyard in the heart of the Douro Valley, with a 19th century home.
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