Ham Street Wines - Biodynamic, Regenerative English Wines in Kent
Tucked into the rolling countryside just outside the village of Hamstreet in Kent, Ham Street Wines is one of a tiny handful of UK vineyards working to fully biodynamic and regenerative standards. The project is the work of a young husband-and-wife team, Lucie and Jules, who planted more than 16,000 vines across ten acres in 2019 and released their first wines from the 2021 vintage in 2022. Their philosophy is disarmingly simple: grow exceptional fruit in living soil, intervene as little as possible in the winery, and let the season speak through every bottle.
A vineyard in a Kent wine hot spot
The site sits in the heart of one of England's most exciting areas for still and sparkling wine production. Kent's combination of free-draining soils, maritime climate and gentle topography has attracted a wave of pioneering growers, and Ham Street Wines has chosen to plant a classic Champagne-style blend alongside two aromatic still varieties. Across the ten acres you will find:
- Chardonnay
- Pinot Noir
- Pinot Meunier
- Bacchus
- Pinot Gris
This mix gives Lucie and Jules the flexibility to make both traditional-method sparkling wines and quietly expressive still wines, all from grapes grown on a single, contiguous site. Because everything in the bottle is estate fruit, every release is a literal snapshot of the season, the soil and the team that farmed it that year.
Biodynamic and regenerative by design
Ham Street Wines is fully certified under biodynamic standards with the Biodynamic Association (BDA), placing it among a very small minority of UK vineyards operating at this level. The team's approach goes hand in hand with regenerative agriculture, an integrated set of practices aimed at building soil health, biodiversity and ecosystem resilience over years and decades rather than weeks and months.
Key principles include:
- No synthetic chemicals, herbicides or pesticides.
- Use of plant teas, micronutrients and holistic farming techniques to feed the soil food web.
- Minimal copper applications as a fungicide, with regular soil testing to ensure levels stay safe for the ecosystem.
- A focus on cover crops and plant diversity between the rows.
- No routine spraying calendar - interventions are based on observation and need, not convention.
The result is a vineyard that the team hopes will, over time, become a self-supporting ecosystem. This is a long-term project: yields may be lower and crops may be lost in the early years as the system finds its balance, but the destination is a healthy site with healthy vines producing fruit of genuine character.
Natural wines, vintage by vintage
Once the fruit arrives in the winery the same philosophy applies. Ham Street Wines are small-batch natural wines, made only from the estate's own grapes, with minimal additions and interventions. The wines are predominantly zero sulphur, although a small sulphur addition is used on bottling for occasional wines that require it.
Because each wine is shaped by what nature delivers in a given year, the range changes from release to release. Some styles may appear only intermittently, and the same label will taste subtly different vintage to vintage. This is intentional: the team want to make wines that capture the season rather than force it into a uniform house style. They are also clear that their wines are made to have "life and soul", crafted without the reliance on chemicals or fancy marketing that characterises much of the modern wine trade.
Meet the team
The vineyard is the work of two people balancing their passion for farming with their existing careers while the site becomes fully established.
- Lucie - Founder, winemaker and self-confessed nature enthusiast.
- Jules - Founder, winemaker and "soil geek", focused on the life beneath the vines.
They are supported by a wider community of volunteers and seasonal workers who join them in the vineyard through the year. The team plan to take on WWOOFers from 2027, and offer opportunities for anyone interested in learning biodynamics in the vineyard, doing a vintage in the winery, helping at stalls or events, or exploring contract winemaking. A one-tonne minimum of fruit is required for custom winemaking.
The labels: artwork rooted in the vineyard
Each Ham Street Wines release is finished with a label that celebrates the cover crops and companion plants used in the vineyard. Without these plants, the team explains, the farming system would not function. The artwork is brought to life by Scottish artist and garden designer Thelma Wrightson, with the labels produced in collaboration with Nomad Rush designs. It is a small touch, but it reflects the wider ethos: every part of the wine, from the soil to the bottle, is connected to the place it came from.
Visiting Ham Street Wines
The vineyard is open by appointment only for private visits, and the team run regular open days and walk-in sessions throughout the summer. The address is:
Ham Street Vineyard
Warehorne Road
Kent, TN26 2JT
Private visits are booked by email at info@hamstreetwines.co.uk or by calling Lucie on 07709 837 095 or Jules on 07762 171 327.
Self-guided vineyard tour
Visitors who want to explore at their own pace can download the Self Guided Tour PDF, which walks you around the site and explains the vineyard's approach as you go.
Events and what's on
Highlights from the events programme include:
- Ham Street open for walk-ins - monthly drop-in days at the vineyard for tastings, food and self-guided tours in the sunshine, 11am - 5pm. Listed dates include 9 May, 6 June, 4 July and 15 August 2026.
- Open Day at Ham Street - a bank-holiday celebration with a BBQ, vinyls, games and activities for all the family, accompanied by Ham Street wines. Tickets are sold via the Shop.
- Updown Farm House wine tasting - a Ham Street Wines tasting hosted at Updown Farm House.
- Where The Light Gets In - Stockport - a guest tasting at one of Manchester's most talked-about restaurants.
- Fireside evening with Field Food - hosted by Barcombe Organics.
Dates and locations change throughout the year, and @hamstreetwines on Instagram carries the latest announcements.
Where to buy the wines
Ham Street Wines releases are sold direct through the online shop in small batches, with new vintages appearing as they are ready to bottle. Because production is limited and tied to the vineyard, allocations can move quickly, and signing up to the mailing list is the best way to hear about new releases before they sell out.
Alongside direct sales, the wines are available at an extensive and carefully chosen network of independent restaurants, bottle shops, farm shops and natural-wine specialists across the UK. The full stockists list includes venues in London (Borough Market, Hackney, Highbury, Forest Hill, Hove and many more), Kent and Sussex (Margate, Hastings, Rye, Tenterden and the surrounding villages), Manchester and Stockport, and a host of other towns.
Why Ham Street Wines matters
England's wine scene has grown up fast, but most vineyards still rely on conventional agronomy to manage weeds, pests and disease. Ham Street Wines is one of a small group of growers asking whether English wine can be made differently - with fewer inputs, more biodiversity, and a willingness to accept lower yields and trickier harvests in exchange for a vineyard that genuinely improves the land it sits on.
For visitors, that means a chance to taste wines that are unmistakably site-specific, made by people who farm the vines themselves and who are happy to talk through everything from cover crops and compost teas to zero-sulphur winemaking. For the wider industry, projects like Ham Street Wines are an important proof point that biodynamic and regenerative viticulture can produce serious, characterful wines in a cool, marginal climate.
Plan your visit
- Address: Ham Street Vineyard, Warehorne Road, Kent, TN26 2JT
- Email: info@hamstreetwines.co.uk
- Lucie: 07709 837 095
- Jules: 07762 171 327
- Opening: By appointment only, plus selected open days and walk-in dates through the summer
- Shop: hamstreetwines.co.uk/shop
- Self-guided tour PDF: hamstreetwines.co.uk/self-guided-tour
- Instagram: @hamstreetwines
As the young vines mature and the soil ecosystem deepens, each new vintage from Ham Street Wines offers another glimpse of what regenerative, biodynamic English viticulture can achieve.