Heartenoak Vineyard: A Family-Run Kent Vineyard Bringing a 17-Year Dream to Life
Tucked away along a quiet lane on the edge of the High Weald, Heartenoak Vineyard is one of Kent's newest and most heartfelt wine projects. Planted in 2020 on family land at Beals Green Farm near Hawkhurst, the vineyard is the realisation of a dream first imagined in 2002, when the current owners first walked the fields and saw past the dilapidated farmhouse to the agricultural potential beneath their boots. Today the same family tends 14,750 vines by hand, producing still and sparkling wines from five grape varieties and welcoming small groups for intimate tours and tastings arranged on request.
The project is, in every sense, a family affair. From pruning the vines and managing the canopy to harvesting the fruit and even building the website, the Heartenoak team does it all themselves. That hands-on approach gives the vineyard a quietly distinctive character that visitors tend to notice straight away, and it underpins everything the site offers, from the wines in the cellar to the conversation you'll have walking between the rows.
A Family Dream, Seventeen Years in the Making
The story of Heartenoak begins not in 2020 with the planting of the vines, but almost two decades earlier. When the family first viewed Beals Green Farm in 2002, the farmhouse was in such disrepair that they were initially put off. A walk around the surrounding fields, however, changed their minds. The land was good, the setting was beautiful, and one of them simply said: one day this would be a vineyard.
It took more than seventeen years to prove that instinct right. The intervening period was spent restoring the farmhouse and, more importantly, preparing the land for vines. Years of sheep grazing had left the soil acidic, so the family added forty tonnes of lime to bring it back into balance. New land drainage was then installed - a job that turned into a small archaeological dig, as the team uncovered clay drainage pipes that almost certainly dated back to the Napoleonic era, evidence that prisoners of war had once carried out similar work in the same fields.
With the soil finally ready, the family turned their attention to planting. A German planting team arrived a day earlier than originally planned, but it quickly became obvious why: once they started, the work moved at remarkable pace, with 7 am starts and 8:30 pm finishes meaning that the entire vineyard - close to fifteen thousand vines - was in the ground inside a single day.
Neighbours, Rabbits and a Last-Minute Race
Planting the vines was only the first hurdle. Once they were in the soil, the family had to install thousands of stakes and vine-guards, and they were told they had just two weeks before the new growth would start to attract the local rabbit population. Help, however, came from an unexpected quarter. A hopeful note sent around to the neighbours on Heartenoak Road brought people of all ages out into the sunshine. For three or four days they arrived early and worked late, fitting guards almost as quickly as the German team could plant the vines.
The wider community spirit has remained part of Heartenoak's identity ever since. After the planting was complete, the family rewarded their helpers with bottles of bubbly - a gesture that says a great deal about the easy, generous tone of the project. The vines themselves were laid out in rows more than two metres apart, which not only made social distancing easy to maintain during the pandemic era of 2020 but also made it easier for visitors today to wander comfortably between the rows during a tour.
The Vineyards: Five Varieties on the High Weald
Heartenoak is a small but carefully considered site. The five grape varieties planted across the vineyard were chosen to suit both the Kentish climate and the family's ambition to produce a range of styles, from sparkling and aromatic whites through to a fuller-bodied red in warmer years.
- Bacchus - an aromatic white variety that has become something of a signature of English viticulture. At Heartenoak it forms the backbone of their still white wine.
- Pinot Blanc - a quieter, more mineral cousin of Pinot Gris, used in the production of still white wine.
- Seyval Blanc - a reliable hybrid variety widely grown in the UK, particularly well suited to sparkling wine production.
- Reichensteiner - a German cross that performs well in cooler climates and is well established in English vineyards, contributing to the Heartenoak sparkling programme.
- Cabernet Noir - a more recent and robust variety that gives Heartenoak the potential for a full-bodied red in warmer-than-average years, or a refreshing rosé when the season is cooler.
The combination of classical Champagne varieties (via Seyval Blanc and Reichensteiner), the fashionable Bacchus and Pinot Blanc for still whites, and Cabernet Noir for red or rosé gives the family real flexibility. It also means that a tasting at the vineyard can cover quite a range of styles from a single estate.
First Harvest, 2022
The vineyard's first commercial harvest came in 2022, two years after planting. Reaching that point required enormous patience: vines typically need at least three growing seasons before they produce a meaningful crop, and 2022 was, of course, the year of the record-breaking English summer. It was a fitting reward for a project that had been more than seventeen years in the making.
Tours and Tastings
Heartenoak does not run a fixed, advertised timetable of open days. Instead, the family organises tours and tastings by request, allowing them to give each group the time and attention a small, family-run vineyard deserves. A standard visit includes a walk through the vines and a tasting of the wines currently available.
The price for a vineyard tour and tasting is £25 per person, with visits arranged by emailing the family directly at contact@heartenoakvineyard.co.uk. You can also reach the team by phone on 07504 696065. Because the experience is by request, it is worth getting in touch well in advance if you have a particular date in mind.
What to Expect From a Visit
A typical visit begins with a walk out into the vineyard, where the family will explain how the site was prepared, how the five varieties are matched to the soil and aspect, and how a typical season unfolds from budburst through to harvest. You'll then return to the cellar area (or wherever the tasting is set up on the day) to taste through the current release wines, hearing the story behind each one and the decisions that shaped the final blend or style.
Groups are kept deliberately small, so there is plenty of opportunity to ask questions - about pruning, yields, winemaking choices or simply what it is like to run a vineyard as a family.
The Wines
The Heartenoak range is built around the strengths of each of the five grape varieties planted on the site. While the full line-up is best appreciated in person during a tasting, the current portfolio broadly includes:
- Still White - Bacchus: the aromatic English classic, showcasing the floral, gooseberry-and-elderflower character the variety is loved for.
- Still White - Pinot Blanc: a more understated, mineral style that pairs well with food and offers a counterpoint to the more exuberant Bacchus.
- Sparkling White - Seyval Blanc and Reichensteiner: a traditional-method or tank-method sparkling wine made from the two varieties best suited to fizz in a UK climate.
- Red or Rosé - Cabernet Noir: depending on the warmth of the vintage, the Cabernet Noir fruit is either vinified as a fuller-bodied red or as a lighter, brighter rosé.
Specific bottlings and vintages evolve as the vineyard matures, so the current portfolio is best explored during a tasting visit. Wines can be purchased online via the Heartenoak shop, and the tour-and-tasting package at £25 per person can also be arranged online.
Visit Heartenoak Vineyard
Heartenoak is based at Beals Green Farm, Heartenoak Road, Hawkhurst, Kent, TN18 5EU. Hawkhurst sits in the southern part of Kent, not far from the border with East Sussex, in an area well known for its mixed farmland, hop gardens and increasingly its vineyards. The High Weald landscape - gentle ridges, small woodlands and pastures - is a beautiful setting for a vineyard, and the family has clearly thought carefully about how to fit the new planting into the existing farm.
Getting in Touch
The family can be contacted directly to book a tour or tasting, ask about wine availability, or find out more about the project:
- Email: contact@heartenoakvineyard.co.uk
- Telephone: 07504 696065
- Address: Beals Green Farm, Heartenoak Road, Hawkhurst, Kent, TN18 5EU
The team is also active on Instagram at @heartenoakvineyard, where they share updates from the vineyard through the seasons - pruning in winter, budburst in spring, canopy management in summer and harvest in autumn.
A Young Vineyard with a Long Memory
Although Heartenoak only began producing wine in 2022, the project carries a remarkable amount of history with it: the Napoleonic clay pipes unearthed during drainage work, the neighbours who turned out with vine-guards during the pandemic spring of 2020, and the original spark of an idea in 2002 that refused to go out. The wines themselves are still young, but the story behind them is already long, and that sense of continuity is part of what makes a visit to Heartenoak Vineyard feel genuinely special.