Flint Vineyard: Pioneering English Charmat and Precision Stills on the Norfolk - Suffolk Border
Flint Vineyard: a South Norfolk pioneer pushing the edges of English wine
Flint Vineyard sits in the rolling countryside of South Norfolk, just outside the small market town of Bungay, and has become one of the most distinctive names on the English wine map. Founded by winemaker Ben Witchell in 2016, Flint began life with an initial planting of 12,000 vines and now extends to around 40 acres - roughly 60,000 vines - with a further 40 acres being planted. Ben Witchell has described the winery as having "the largest concentration of concrete and stainless steel in the country", reflecting the winery's commitment to low-intervention, vessel-led winemaking.
The winery's tagline - "Pioneers of English Charmat" - captures the estate's ambition. Flint was one of the first English wineries to make sparkling wine in the Italian Charmat method, fermenting the bubbles in a pressurised tank rather than inside the bottle, and has built its reputation on bright, fruit-forward sparkling wines alongside a quietly ambitious range of still wines.
Where Flint Vineyard is located
Flint Vineyard is based at Camphill Farm on Middle Road, Earsham, just south of Bungay in Norfolk (postcode NR35 2AH). It is well placed for visitors from across East Anglia: Bungay is about five minutes by car, Beccles roughly 15 minutes, Diss about 25 minutes and Norwich around 30 minutes. From London, it is roughly 1 hour 30 minutes by train and then a 25-minute drive. Nearby accommodation ranges from glamping and shepherd's huts to country B&Bs and inns.
Opening hours and contact details
The Cellar Door shop and Wine Bar at Flint are open 10am to 4pm Tuesday to Sunday, with the Wine Bar open until 7pm on Fridays for late-evening drinks. The Flint Kitchen serves lunch from 12pm to 2:30pm on Wednesday to Sunday, with a new Sunday brunch service available from 11:30am. Visitors can book online, drop in, or stay for lunch after a tour or tasting. Direct contact details are:
- Email: enquiries@flintvineyard.com (general); ryan@flintvineyard.com (trade and large orders)
- Phone: +44 1986 893942
- Address: Flint Vineyard, Camphill Farm, Middle Road, Earsham, NR35 2AH
The Flint wine range
Flint's portfolio splits naturally into two worlds: category-defining English Charmat sparkling wines, and a small, evolving range of still wines that includes the long-running Silex blend, the skin-contact Bacchus known as Fumé, and the silky Pinot Noir Précoce. Almost every wine is vegan friendly and made with minimal sulphur additions.
English Charmat sparkling wines
The Charmat method produces fizz by carrying out a second fermentation in a sealed tank, locking in the bright, juicy character of the fruit and yielding a wine that is meant to be enjoyed young rather than aged for years in a cellar. Flint's Charmats are made from a complex mix of vinifera and PIWI grape varieties - disease-resistant hybrids that suit the UK climate and need very little spraying in the vineyard. The result is two distinct wines:
- Charmat - a vivid, expressive white sparkling that "bursts with lemon, pear and elderflower flavours, mouth-watering acidity and a crisp, refreshing finish." Built around Bacchus and Chardonnay with aromatic PIWI varieties from East Anglia, it sits in Brut territory with 9.9 g/L residual sugar. £23 per bottle, or a case of six for £120 (from £138).
- Charmat Rosé - "a dreamy summer afternoon in a glass": vivid pink, with fresh strawberry and cherry, mouth-watering acidity and a crisp finish. A blend of Pinot Noir, Rondo, Pinotin, Sauvignac and other PIWI and aromatic varieties with a small addition of reserve wine. £23 per bottle, or a case of six for £120 (from £138).
- Charmat Mixed Case - three bottles of Charmat Rosé and three bottles of Charmat for £120 (from £138), available here.
Flint's Charmat Rosé has attracted some high-profile attention: it is currently on pour by the glass at the Swan Restaurant at Shakespeare's Globe in London as part of their Romeo & Juliet afternoon tea menu.
The still wines
Flint's still range is small but considered. Each release is a snapshot of the vintage, with vineyard work and cellar choices tuned accordingly.
Bacchus and Fumé
Bacchus is widely regarded as the great white hope of English wine, and Flint has spent the last decade pushing it further than most. Their flagship release is Bacchus 2025: dry and vibrant, with expressive aromas of kiwi and passionfruit, heather, melon and pear, finishing with a subtle hint of cardamom. Made in small barriques, large oak foudres and unlined concrete tanks with bi-weekly lees stirring and 20% malolactic fermentation, it has become Flint's signature style. £20 per bottle (£110 per case of six).
The more experimental Fumé 2024 takes the same grape and pushes it through extended skin contact, careful oak ageing and a bold winemaking approach to create a "bright, expressive, textured" wine. Tasting notes describe ripe pear, English apple, violets and Turkish delight on the nose, and a soft yet structured palate with pink grapefruit, almonds and biscuit pastry. Great British Wine called it "crisp, fresh, invigorating… one of the best Bacchus on the market right now." Fumé 2024 is currently sold out at the case-of-six level (£110, was £120) but new vintages appear periodically.
Silex - the living blueprint
Silex is the most ambitious still wine in the Flint cellar. The name is the French for flint - a deliberate nod to the vineyard - and the wine is conceived as a living blueprint that evolves every vintage. "Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay have dominated the seven vintages of the Silex living blueprint, with Pinot Gris, Meunier, Bacchus and Solaris all making vital contributions, dependent on what each harvest has given us."
Silex 2024 is Chardonnay-dominant (66%) with Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. Fruit is whole-bunch pressed and fermented slowly in a mix of concrete egg, neutral oak and seasoned barrels, with full malolactic fermentation and 12 months on gross lees. The result is described as "bright and waxy, layered with citrus and orchard fruit, framed by taut acidity. Poised, complex, and confidently evolving." £27 per bottle or £150 per case of six. Silex 2024 won back-to-back Gold Medals at both the Independent English Wine Awards and the WineGB Awards in 2026.
The preceding vintage, Silex 2023, is 39% Chardonnay, 28% Pinot Blanc, 17% Pinot Gris and 16% Pinot Noir, with a more linear, mineral style and 12% alcohol. Tasting notes pick out toasted almonds and lemon peel on the nose with a waxy, grippy texture on the palate. £27 per bottle via the Wine Club and Secret Shop.
Précoce and Rosé
Pinot Noir Précoce 2025 is Flint's youthful, silky red - an early-ripening Pinot that works brilliantly slightly chilled. Bright and juicy with redcurrant and bramble fruit, and a few months in old barrels adding autumnal spice. £110 per case of six; the previous 2024 vintage is sold out but won Gold at the WineGB Awards. The new Rosé 2025 - the first time Flint has released a still rosé beyond the Wine Club - is built around Pinot Noir with Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay, fermented in neutral old oak and finished with a small dosage to balance the fresh acidity. £20 per bottle or £110 per case of six.
Limited releases and the VMV Late Disgorged
For collectors, Flint releases occasional limited bottlings. The VMV Late Disgorged is the late-disgorged version of the special-release VMV reserve sparkling, eight years in the making and limited to 600 bottles. Made from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier across three vintages, two-thirds aged in oak, with secondary fermentation in bottle and five years on lees (bottled 2019, disgorged 2024). £64 per bottle or £326 per case of six (from £384).
Visiting Flint: tours, tastings and the Flint Kitchen
Flint Vineyard is built for visitors. The Cellar Door team hosts regular tours and tastings, and the Flint Kitchen is on hand for lunch or an evening supper club.
The Flint Tour
The flagship experience is the Flint Vineyard Tour, running at 11am Wednesday to Sunday. Lasting around two hours and priced at £25 per person, the tour takes in the vineyard, the winery and a guided tasting of four wines, overlooking the vines in good weather or in the cellar door barn if not. Under-18s are welcome free of charge but cannot take part in the tasting. A chef's lunch can be added to the booking for an additional fee.
Guided tasting
The Guided Tasting is a more relaxed 30-minute seated tasting (£15 per person) hosted by the Cellar Door team, held in the traditional cellar room or outside overlooking the vines. Available Tuesday to Sunday.
Winery Masterclass
The Winery Masterclass is the geekier option - a 90-minute tour (£35 per person) running twice on Saturdays each month from March to September, at 10am - 12pm or 2pm - 4pm. Visitors see the lab, bottling room and barrel room, sample straight from the tank, and finish with a guided tasting of four wines. A pre-booked Small Plate Lunch with chef Alex Firman can be added for £24.50 per person.
Supper Club and Twilight Tour
The Supper Club is a monthly Friday-evening dinner (£44.50 per person, 5pm - 10pm) in the converted Norfolk barn, with a set menu curated by chefs Alex and Gemma that changes with the seasons. Bar opens at 5pm, dinner is served at 7pm. A Twilight Tour & Dinner evening experience is also offered for those who want to extend their visit into the night.
Flint Kitchen lunches
The Flint Kitchen is open Wednesday to Sunday, 12pm - 2:30pm, plus Sunday brunch from 11:30am. The seasonal sample menu (April 2026) ranges from Norfolk cheese and charcuterie boards (£16) and small plates such as broccoli nuggs with sour cream and chimichurri (£8) to larger plates like roasted seabass with Cretan salad and pickled lemon (£18) and beef brisket hash with fried egg (£18). Desserts include orange, rhubarb and crème fraîche cake (£8). Tables can be reserved online free of charge.
Accessibility, dogs, families and parking
Flint is fully accessible, with low-mobility parking by the winery, smooth concrete to the Cellar Door and winery, a wheelchair-accessible garden, accessible toilets and baby-change facilities. Children of any age are welcome and baby-change and high chairs are available. Dogs are also welcome on leads, though there are rabbits and pheasants around the vineyard. Parking for normal visits is behind the winery; on busy Flint Friday and Flint Sunday event days, parking moves to the field at the base of the vineyard. A walkthrough video of the site is available to view in advance.
Flint Wine Club: small-batch experiments by subscription
The Flint Wine Club gives members first access to the experimental side of the winery - wines made in tiny batches that often never reach the open shop. There are three subscription tiers:
- Flint Lab - £75 per delivery. Three bottles every six months of exclusive small-batch experimental wines, plus guaranteed access to all upcoming limited releases and a minimum 10% discount on other wines.
- All of Flint - £85 per delivery (every three months). The full Flint experience: experimental wines, main range bottles, limitless tour and tasting places for you and a guest, exclusive vineyard days and tastings of upcoming wines.
- Flint Community - £50 per year. A non-wine membership focused on experiences: vineyard days, tastings of upcoming wines, limitless tour and tasting places and the 10% discount. No bottles included.
Members can manage, pause or cancel their subscription through an online portal, and cases can be delivered free of charge or collected from Camphill Farm.
Flint events calendar
Flint runs one of the liveliest event programmes of any English vineyard. The main hub is a year-round What's On Calendar, which runs through two flagship series: Flint Fridays and Flint Sundays, hosted under the Camphill banner.
Flint Fridays - legendary live music party nights
Once a month from May to September the Flint garden and barn light up with live music, street food, Flint wine and Ampersand beer. Free entry from 4pm, with the bar open until 10:30pm. Upcoming 2026 dates include:
- 21st August 2026 - Spangle steel pan band in the garden at 6pm followed by rock 'n' roll covers band The Anyones; food from Seconds Catering, Patrón Paella, Yellow Door Pizza, Bootiful Buckets, Woodyard Kitchen and Feel Good Ice Cream.
- 11th September 2026 - watch the sun go down with Yield and dance to rock, pop and indie anthems; food from Ammas Kitchen, Yellow Door Pizza, Bootiful Buckets, Hen House and Feel Good Ice Cream.
Flint Sundays - chilled acoustic afternoons
Monthly Sundays from 12pm to 4:30pm, the Flint Sundays are the more laid-back counterpart: acoustic music, chilled sets from DJ Soundwax, local street food, Flint wine and Ampersand beer in the barn or vineyard gardens. No booking, no tickets - just turn up. Upcoming 2026 dates include:
- 30th August 2026 - covers band Zig Zag Box Car, with food from Crabb & Fox Pizza, A Couple of Cowgals, Get me to the Greek, Feel Good Ice Cream and Scot & Folk Coffee.
- 20th September 2026 - Blue Plate Specials, joined by Chim Chim Thai, Yellow Door Pizza and Scot & Folk Coffee.
- 25th October 2026 - Two Odd Hogs with American country/blues covers, joined by Woodyard Kitchen, Patrón Paella and Scot & Folk Coffee.
- 29th November 2026 - the Christmas Fayre (music and food details to be confirmed), with Bootiful Buckets, Ammas Kitchen and Scot & Folk Coffee on the line-up.
Winery Masterclass dates
The Winery Masterclass runs twice on Saturdays each month from March to September, at 10am - 12pm or 2pm - 4pm.
Sustainability and the winemaking philosophy
Flint Vineyard describes itself as "Organic Plus" rather than certified organic. Founder Ben Witchell has argued that vineyard monocultures can never be truly natural and that the lines between organic and conventional are more blurred than the marketing suggests. Instead, Flint focuses on practical, evidence-led sustainability: concrete and stainless steel fermentation vessels chosen for what they bring to the wine rather than as a fashion statement, low sulphur additions, neutral barrels to extend their working life, and the use of PIWI grape varieties - disease-resistant hybrids such as Sauvignac, Pinotin and Solaris - that thrive in the UK climate with little or no spraying.
Concrete plays a particular role. A large concrete egg, made to order in Italy, sits alongside square concrete tanks in the Flint winery. As Ben has explained, the egg shape is said to keep lees in gentle circulation, adding complexity and softness without bâtonnage, while the porosity of concrete lets the wine breathe, softening tannins and lifting aromatics - particularly important in the flint-driven Bacchus that underpins Fumé.
Where to find Flint wines
Beyond the Cellar Door at Camphill Farm, Flint wines are available direct from the online shop, with free express delivery on UK mainland orders of six bottles or more (a £7.99 standard charge otherwise). Trade customers are served via a separate trade portal, and Flint has begun selective on-trade listings, most visibly at Shakespeare's Globe's Swan Restaurant.
Planning your visit
Tours and tastings can be booked in advance, and visitors are welcome to linger in the vineyard gardens between sessions. From a morning tour and tasting, to lunch in the Flint Kitchen and an evening glass of Charmat in the barn, Flint Vineyard is a genuinely full-day experience in the South Norfolk countryside. Direct enquiries: enquiries@flintvineyard.com or +44 1986 893942.