How an Essex valley became one of the UK’s most exciting new wine regions

New Hall wine estate, in the Crouch Valley, where the first vines were planted in 1969. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

It was a Thursday afternoon spent basking in the sunshine, strolling through rolling hills and expansive plains laced with fruit-bearing vines. Surely I must have been dispatched to Tuscany or Bordeaux but no, this was the scene a mere 20-minute drive from Chelmsford, Essex.

While the unassuming city might be better know as the stomping ground for the cast of The Only Way is Essex, with ITV cameras a frequent sight, the surrounding area could soon have another claim to fame as an emerging capital of English wine, which is on the up.