British wines are finally coming into their own, with two English vineyards winning gold for the first time at the prestigious International Wine Challenge. Thanks to this improvement in quality – as well as falling costs because of the weaker pound and the current trend for buying local produce - English viticulture has recently been enjoying a surge of interest. The industry, which is still quite young (our oldest vineyards date from the 1960s), has not only matured but has developed a distinctive English style - particularly delicate, sunny aromatic whites - which is winning fans, as well as international awards for our zingy Champagne-style fizzies. English Wine Week (May 29 – June 6) invites us to "think, drink English", encouraging us to visit and enjoy our thriving vineyards and wineries (there are nearly 400 of them across England and Wales). Many offer talks, tours and tastings, not just this week, but all year round. And so you don't have to drive home afterwards, some provide farmhouse guest rooms and other places to stay among the vines.

The wines here are among England's finest - Camel's 2008 Pinot Noir Rose Brut has just scooped the gold award at the International Wine Challenge - described as "perfectly balanced, quite fat but not full flavoured" by their wine maker Sam Lindo. best wine for teachersThis is Cornwall's largest and most celebrated vineyard, with 82 acres of south-facing slopes located just off the Camel Trail, which follows the river valley from Bodmin Moor to Padstow. best red wine with italian foodIt was founded in 1989 by former RAF pilot Bob Lindo after a mid-air collision forced him to rethink his life. top wine making kitsThere are two stone-built holiday cottages: the one-bedroom Cowel Gwenyn (meaning bee hive) and the two-bedroom Lion's Barn; best wine georgia

the latter has a balcony overlooking the vines. Spend your time fishing on the Camel at the vineyard's own stretch of riverbank, cycling to Padstow, or quaffing glasses of, say, Camel Valley Bacchus (dry and aromatic with whiffs of the Loire Valley). beer and wine store openPrices include a Wednesday-afternoon Grand Winery Tour and a complimentary bottle of red or white.best wine collection software • Self-catering from £320 a week. best time to visit winery in va, +44 (0)1208 77959.buy french wine in london Started by two farmers on half an acre in 1976, this Forest of Dean vineyard – now 70 acres – is the all-singing, all-dancing viticulture experience: shop, tours, wine tastings, visitor centre, B&B, lunch, dinner, 400 tonnes of grapes (on a good year) and some 14 varieties of English wines (unique, fruity and best-served young). buy wine kit online

You can stay in one of eight terraced Vineyard View rooms or one of three purpose-built Scandinavian lodges (the latter have verandas, roll-top baths and floor-to-ceiling windows). All are a short stagger from the restaurant, which serves modern English food, or the new summerhouse for light lunches among the vines. • Double rooms from £115; three-choirs-vineyards.co.uk, +44 (0)1531 890223. A boutique hotel in a two-acre micro vineyard, this little number opened in 2000 to produce "chateau-bottled" wines made in an on-site winery from, among others, pinot noir, chardonnay and phoenix grapes. Set in a sunny Wessex valley between Corfe Castle and Swanage, close to Dorset's Jurassic Coast, it also has a restaurant (try a bottle of Studland Ruby with Dorset duck breast) and nine luxury guest rooms (think hand-sprung mattresses on wrought iron beds dolled up with silky throws). Most have views of the vineyard or the Purbeck Hills; one has a four-poster. In the summer you can arrive by steam train – the Swanage Heritage Steam Railway runs a service through nearby Harmans Cross Station.

• Doubles from £110. , +44 (0)1929 481525. This Isle of Wight vineyard is one the oldest in Britain, at the grand old age of 42, though it changed hands when former Londoners Alan and Gillian Stockman bought the place in 1996. On the edge of beautiful Brading Down, to the east of the island, its chalky 10 acres produce a fruity white müller-thurgau, a medium-bodied rondo red and a crisp sparkling made from seyval blanc. There is a shop, a cafe serving cream teas, and cottagey rooms in the farmhouse, which has wonderful views across the island to Sandown and the sea. Guests get free tours of the vineyards and cellars, and a wine tasting. • Doubles from £50. english-wine.co.uk, +44 (0)1983 402503. Founded by the Barnes family in 1969, Kent's oldest vineyard nestles in a dip of Wealdon countryside, a mile or so from Biddenden. Ten varieties of vine produce a range of reds, whites, roses and sparkling wines – alongside Biddenden's strong Kentish ciders and apple juices.

There is a shop and tea room, free twice-monthly vineyard tours (vines, presses, bottling line etc) and a self-catering Vineyard Loft. On the upper floor of a farmhouse annex, the open-plan studio apartment for two has a decked balcony overlooking orchards and vineyards. • One week from £250, short breaks from £135. , +44 (0)1580 291726. Just outside Upton-on-Severn, between the M50 and the Malvern Hills, this family-run farm has a 1.5-acre vineyard producing award-winning English classics, including the bottle-fermented Elgar Sparkling (Edward Elgar was a local boy) and a lightly oaked white. Both are for sale in the barn-cum-shop (open Monday to Friday). There are three guest rooms in the farmhouse, housed in a 17th-century timber-framed cottage with Georgian facade, with low beams and an inglenook inside. B&B includes home-made marmalades, Tiltridge Farm eggs and the odd wine tasting. • Doubles from £70 per night. , +44 (0)1684 592906. England's most northerly commercial vineyard sits at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds, roughly 12 miles from York.

It's home to 10 acres of vines, three of which are pure organic, all cultivated in a wildlife-friendly way. This is a young venture (Stuart and Elizabeth Smith produced Ryedale's first vintage in 2009), but they have already won a fist of awards for the wines - Yorkshire Sunset rose and Wolds View white. In the farmhouse two homey roomsare furnished with Pennine tweeds and "vineyard colours" of green and mauve. • Doubles from £75 per night. ryedalevineyards.co.uk, +44 (0)1653 658507. A late 1980s' mid-life crisis led Janet and Jonathan Craft to East Anglia (England's answer to Alsace) where they planted eight acres of Wissett Wines' vines (Pinot Gris, Madeleine Angevine, Auxerrois). On their Elizabethan farmstead (all timber and pantiles) the Crafts also run a herd of alpacas, a vineyard trail, a visitor centre (open daily from March until December) and Noah's Ark – a converted barn offering self-catering for up to 10 people. Country house weekends are their speciality; jollied along, no doubt, by bottles of Wissett Pink or a fine Suffolk bubbly.

• One week from £515 per week, short breaks from £387. Pick-ups available from Halesworth station, three miles away. , +44 (0)1986 785535. David and Tamzin Whittingham's campsite-in-a-vineyard offers the chance to pitch – or rent – a tent on 23 acres of vines, livestock and organic apple and pear orchards. In a peaceful corner of the smallholding, there is a caravan field (10 pitches with hook-ups), a camping field (up to 15 tents with fire rings) and two furnished, family-size yurts (double beds and woodburners). Campers get a chance to sample Hidden Spring's own wines, including an "easy drinking summery white", ciders and juices. For a day out, pop down to nearby Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard; the coast, at Eastbourne, is half an hour away. • Camping pitches from £12 per night; yurts from £50 per night. hiddenspring.co.uk, +44 (0)1435 812640. The oldest established vineyard in Wales was founded in 1982 by Richard and Susan Norris. In the Vale of Glamorgan, a mile from Cowbridge, they have since established a fine collection of Welsh wines: fruity whites, a vintage sparkling and an oak-aged red (the latter sold out until June).