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Denbies, just outside Dorking, is England’s largest vineyard at 265 acres. Its flint-faced, château-style visitors’ centre sits amid the vines, a homing beacon for the viticulturally curious. Californian in scale and style, it resembles nothing so much as a trendy church – which is appropriate, given the proselytising zeal of its staff. There are conference facilities, a guesthouse, two restaurants, a kitchen garden and, best of all, a 360° cinema where my fellow visitors and I watch a film telling the story of Denbies from its foundation in 1986 to its current status as the source of over 10 per cent of all wine produced in the UK. Grand panoramas of vines and hillsides float by, soundtracked by rousing Elgarian strings. Jenni Murray (Jenni Murray!) provides a commentary. Feature continues

Plonk if you love English

White lives on-site, which means he’s on 24-hour call. He worries about the weather constantly, especially the possibility of frost. (They’ve just bought some state-of-the-art German burners to boost the air temperature around the vines during cold snaps.) Sheepishly, he admits that global warming will be fantastic for the English wine industry: ‘We’ve already started to notice the difference in climate.’ A few more hot summers and English red wine will start to catch up with the white in quality. (Denbies’ 2003 red Pinot Noir won a Seal of Approval at last month’s International Wine Challenge. Is this the shape of things to come?)

Denbies has flirted with supermarket distribution over the years, and its wine is currently stocked by Bracknell-based Waitrose as part of its commitment to local suppliers. But with production limited to around 400,000 bottles a year, and sales through local stores, the centre’s gift shop and the Denbies website so strong, there’s no pressing need to involve them – which leaves White free to ignore their demands for screw caps rather than corks.

‘It’s sentimentalism really, but I just prefer corks. At a dinner party, it isn’t the same if you’re just unscrewing a bottle.’Denbies’ research suggests that most of their visitors are over-50s living within a 25-mile radius – moneyed, patriotic Daily Mail readers (one surmises) for whom the ‘Denbies experience’ appears to have been custom-made. But it’s only a matter of time before a younger crowd takes an interest, attracted by the bright New World flavours and, perhaps, the agro-ethical benefits of drinking local wine made from high-quality, traceable grapes.

I stop off at the gift shop on my way out. For my father, I buy a bottle of the Yew Tree Pinot Noir, a ‘varietal’ made from a single grape type when there’s an exceptional harvest, and a snip at £13.99. It’s one of Denbies’ best wines. He’d better like it. But of course, he won’t even taste it. ‘No,’ he says with disdain, ‘I don’t think so.’

Denbies Wine Estate, London Rd, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 6AA (01306 876 616/www.denbiesvineyard.co.uk). To get there, take A24 at junction 9 of M25, or trains to Dorking from Waterloo.