Sherborne Castle Estate Wines

Sir Walter Raleigh built the house in 1594, and the same family has lived there since 1617. That is the backdrop for a working Dorset estate that runs to more than art and architecture: a small vineyard sits within the wider business, sharing ground with a Grade I listed garden that was one of Capability Brown's first commissions and survives largely unaltered. Few drinks producers can claim a setting quite so thoroughly documented.

Wine is one strand of a large privately owned rural estate rather than the whole enterprise, so a visit means the castle and gardens as much as the vines. Gardens are open and castle tours run every day except Mondays, when the place is closed, and the calendar takes in seasonal events including a children's autumn pumpkin trail. Find it on New Road, Sherborne, DT9 5NR before setting off.