Torview Wines - A Family-Run Devon Vineyard and Winery on the Edge of Dartmoor
A Hidden Devon Vineyard Sheltered by Dartmoor
Tucked into the folds of the Dartmoor landscape, just outside the village of Sheepwash in Devon, Torview Wines is a small, family-run vineyard and winery that has quietly built a reputation for producing award-winning, sustainably grown English wines. With 7,000 vines now in production and a gentle south-facing aspect, the site benefits from the rain-shadow of the surrounding tors, which reduce rainfall, moderate the wind and prevent heat loss from the canopy - a microclimate that suits cool-climate viticulture beautifully.
Although modest in scale, Torview punches well above its weight. The estate is best known for its reds, made exclusively from its own grapes, and for a hands-on winemaking style that prioritises softness, fruit character and the slow, easy-drinking qualities that southwest England can produce when the season is allowed to run its course.
A Family Team with 25 Years of Experience
Behind Torview Wines is a family team whose winemaker, Tim, brings 25 years of industry experience to the project. Before planting their own vineyard, the family worked for two of the UK's biggest vineyards, completed a vintage in Margaret River (Western Australia) and trained in Hawkes Bay (New Zealand) and California. That breadth of training - across hemispheres and climates - informs a relaxed, experimental approach at home, where no textbook is followed slavishly and each vintage is allowed to speak for itself.
Living onsite means the team is out in the vineyard all year round, watching for disease, adjusting to the weather, and only spraying when absolutely necessary. Although not certified organic, the vineyard takes a low-input approach: the use of weed spray has almost entirely stopped, machinery is chosen to limit soil compaction, and insecticide is only deployed in extreme circumstances.
The Vineyard
The vineyard was planted in 2007 after a two-year search for suitable land and buildings, and a second field followed in 2010. Both blocks are gently south-facing and sit on slightly heavy clay soils that had been used for grazing for the previous 60 years. Today the estate produces grapes from four varieties:
- Pinot Noir - notoriously tricky in the UK, the flagship variety is only made into a single-varietal wine roughly one year in three. The team battles flowering problems, disease pressure and bird damage, and experiments constantly to improve yield and quality.
- Rondo - the earliest variety to come into bud and the earliest to harvest (around the end of September). The berries are small with thick skins, producing heavier, darker, more tannic wines that age particularly well.
- Dornfelder - the latest to bud and the latest to harvest. The largest berries of the four give softer tannins, gentle ripe colour and the loose bunches make it the easiest variety to manage in the field.
- Acolon - only made into a single wine in exceptional years, otherwise blended. Ruby in colour with black-fruit character and great length on the palate.
The large leaves of these varieties maximise photosynthesis - an important trait in a marginal climate where every bit of summer sunshine has to be turned into sugar. Picking can run as late as mid-November in a good year, which allows full physiological ripeness without losing the natural acidity that English wines are loved for.
Winemaking Philosophy
At the winery, Torview likes to celebrate the seasons. Rather than chasing a fixed house style, the team does what is best with each variety at each vintage, embracing the subtle differences that each harvest brings. That ethos is supported by a number of considered production choices:
- Stainless then oak. All wines are fermented and matured in stainless steel until bottling, with smaller batches fermented in barrel and then moved to steel tanks fitted with French oak staves.
- Malolactic fermentation. Every wine goes through a malolactic ferment after the primary yeast ferment, softening acidity and adding roundness.
- Light filtration only. Rather than sterile-filtering for supermarket stability, Torview only lightly filters its reds to preserve colour, tannin and fruit character.
- Screwcaps. Every bottle is sealed under screwcap, which guarantees a consistent oxygen ingress and lets the team use just enough sulphur to protect the wine without the heavier doses cork-closed wines demand.
The common threads across the range are subtlety, softness, fruitiness, easy-drinking structure and hedgerow-fruit flavours - hallmarks that have come from 14+ years of working with the southwest's slower ripening conditions.
The Wines
The Torview range is small and intentional. Most bottles sit in the £15 - £25 bracket and ship flat-rate across the UK in specialist wine courier packaging. The current lineup in the online shop includes:
Dry Rosé 2023 - £15.00
A bone-dry, crisp rosé with strawberries on both the nose and palate. Made for drinking in the sun, it is the perfect al-fresco pour. View product.
Oaked Dry White - £15.00
A new release: a dry white with floral aroma balanced by soft, subtle oak. A more textured alternative to the rosé for white-wine drinkers. View product.
Rondo 2018 - £16.00
Billed by the winery as "a proper old-fashioned cheese wine," the Rondo is smooth with vanilla, ripe tannins and plum-and-cherry fruit. Bone dry, aged for three months with oak staves after a seven-day skin ferment, then bottle-aged for two years before release. Torview's heaviest and most popular red. (Currently out of stock.) View product.
Acolon 2022 - £17.00
A new-release, fruity, robust wine with medium tannins and great length. Ruby in colour with black fruits on the palate - only made as a single varietal in exceptional vintages. View product.
Dornfelder 2022 - £18.00
Italian in style, with red fruits, creamy wood and velvet tannin. Bone dry and the winery's biggest seller as a lightly chilled summer red - produced from one of Torview's warmest-ever harvests and oak-aged for just one month. Medium cherry in colour, with subtle creamy oak and soft velvet tannins. View product.
Pinot Noir 2018 - £20.00
Subtle oak and soft tannins with mulled-citrus and subtle raspberry fruit. Made primarily from the 777 clone, aged three years in the bottle after six months in oak. (Currently out of stock.) View product.
R0D - Traditional Method Sparkling Red - £22.00
RED Zero Dosage - a bone-dry sparkling red made in the traditional method. A festive favourite and a conversation-starter at any table. View product.
Brut Rosé - Dry - £25.00
Bone dry and crisp, with strawberries in aroma and on the palate and a salmon-pink colour. A traditional-method sparkling rosé. View product.
Brut Rosé - Off Dry - £25.00
Still dry, but a touch sweeter than the Brut Nature. Strawberries on nose and palate, salmon-pink in colour and made in the traditional method. View product.
Wine Tours & Tastings
The flagship visitor experience at Torview is the Wine Tour & Tasting, priced at £15.00 per person for approximately 90 minutes. The tour starts out in the vineyard, bringing visitors up to date with how the vines have developed since winter pruning and the impact any recent weather has had on the canopy. The group then moves into the winery to see what is involved in making award-winning English wines, before sitting down to a tasting of three Torview wines.
What's included
- Guided walk through the vineyard and winery
- Tasting of three wines (around 30ml samples each)
- Well-behaved children go free
- Dogs welcome on a lead
- Tours start at 11am and 2pm on published dates - check the booking calendar for available slots
Bookings can be made online. For bookings made less than 24 hours ahead, the team asks that visitors call 07977 408829 to confirm availability.
Visitor reviews consistently single out Tim's encyclopaedic, enthusiastic delivery and the relaxed, fun atmosphere of the tasting. Visitors are advised to bring suitable footwear - the vineyard sits on a hillside that can be steep in places - and wheelchair access is limited due to the terrain, so anyone with mobility concerns is asked to call ahead.
Winemaking Days
For those who want to go one step further than a tasting, Torview runs an annual programme of Winemaking Days, in which small groups of couples join the team across two mornings to pick grapes, crush and press fruit, and ultimately take home six bottles of their very own wine. Vouchers can be purchased as gifts and are posted to the recipient.
2026 Red Winemaking Day - £120.00
Across two mornings spread over the season, participants pick grapes (likely Pinot Noir, Acolon, Rondo or Dornfelder depending on the year), put them through the crusher, add the yeast and finish with a tasting of the winery's award-winning wines. The second morning, the following February, is for filtering and bottling. Limited to a maximum of six couples. (Currently out of stock.) View product.
2025 Rosé Winemaking Day - £120.00
The same hands-on, two-morning experience but with the goal of producing a rosé. Picking day falls on a Saturday in mid-September, with the second morning in late winter for filtering and bottling. Limited to five couples. (Currently out of stock.) View product.
2026 Sparkling Winemaking Day - £180.00
The most ambitious of the three, spread over 14 months: pick and press the fruit, ferment and bottle, then return to riddling, disgorging and topping up before taking home six bottles of traditional-method sparkling rosé. (Currently out of stock.) View product.
Gift Vouchers
Two voucher products make Torview an easy gift for any wine lover:
- £25 Voucher (Digital) - redeemable against a vineyard tour and tasting or wine purchased onsite. Available to download instantly after checkout. View product.
- Guided Tour for Two - available as a £30 digital voucher (downloadable after purchase) or as a £25 postal voucher (free postage, posted to the recipient). Both are valid for two years from the date of purchase and redeemable against any tour between April and October. Digital voucher | Postal voucher.
Ordering Online
Wines are shipped via Royal Mail 48-hour service in specialist wine courier packaging, with a flat-rate delivery charge of £9.95. Gift vouchers are delivered free of charge - digital vouchers are emailed and made available to download after purchase. Orders can be paid for via Stripe or PayPal, and the team does not store card details. Sales enquiries can be directed to sales@torview.co.uk.
Customers are reminded that the winery requires the recipient of any delivery to be 18 or over; deliveries will need to be signed for by someone of legal drinking age.
Visiting Torview Wines
Torview sits at Beara Farm, Sheepwash, near Beaworthy in Devon, postcode EX21 5PB. Approximate travel times are:
- Exeter - 1 hour
- Plymouth - 1 hour 15 minutes
- Barnstaple - 40 minutes
- Bideford - 30 minutes
- Bude - 30 minutes
- Hartland - 35 minutes
- RHS Rosemoor - 15 minutes
From the north, the vineyard is at a tight bend in the road by Swardicott Cross. From the south, it is one mile north of the village of Sheepwash and clearly visible from the road. For an exact drop-pin, the what3words reference is piston.suspended.music.
For any questions about tours, events, winemaking days or the wines themselves, the team can be reached on 07977 408829 or at wine@torview.co.uk.
Keep Up with the Vineyard
The team keeps an In the Vineyard journal, updated with the latest jobs, weather notes and drone footage through the seasons. To follow along, the winery is active on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and visitors can subscribe to the mailing list to receive news, new-release announcements and occasional offers straight to their inbox.
Final Thoughts
Torview Wines is the kind of small, considered English vineyard that makes a Dartmoor or North Devon trip feel properly special. With seven thousand vines, four grape varieties, a hands-on family team and a tasting bench looking out over one of Britain's most dramatic landscapes, it is equal parts farm, winery and visitor attraction. Whether visitors come for the £15 tour and tasting, sign up for a hands-on winemaking day, or simply order a case of the softly oaked reds online, Torview is a Devon producer very much worth getting to know.