Box Hill from Denbies Vineyard

Surrey /ˈsʌri/ is a county in the South East of England, and one of the home counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, and Berkshire, and its historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits extraterritorially at Kingston upon Thames, part of Greater London since 1965. The London boroughs of Lambeth, Wandsworth and Southwark were in Surrey until 1889, and Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton, and the part of Richmond upon Thames situated south of the River Thames—all now in Greater London—were part of Surrey until 1965.

Denbies Wine Estate near Dorking, Surrey has the largest vineyard in England with 265 acres (1.07 km²) under vines, representing over 10% of the plantings in the whole of the United Kingdom. It has a visitors' centre which attracts around 300,000 visitors a year.

The estate is named for an early owner called John Denby. Originally Denbies was a farmhouse. In the mid 18th century it was rebuilt as a gentleman's residence by Jonathan Tyers, proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens near London. Tyer's own garden at Denbies was a startling contrast with the frivolities of Vauxhall, being adorned with memento mori ("reminders of death"). The property passed through several other hands, and in the 1850s it was rebuilt on a larger scale by the preeminent Victorian master builder, Thomas Cubitt. He was visited at Denbies by Prince Albert, who planted a commemorative tree which survived until the Great Storm of 1990.

The house remained in the Cubitt family until the Second World War, when it was requisitioned by the military. In the 1950s Cubitt's great grandson decided to demolish the house as he lacked the funds to restore and maintain it. He converted the laundry and gardener’s house into a smaller Regency-style house. In 1984 the Estate was purchased by a local businessman named Adrian White. From 1986 to 1989 he had the south facing slopes planted with vines. These cover 265 acres (1.07 km²) of the 627-acre (2.54 km²) estate, the remainder of which is woodland and pasture. Denbies is situated on the North Downs which are a range of chalk hills, and the topsoil consists of fertile loam interspersed with flints. The average yield is 300,000 litres of wine per year .

A vineyard ('wine farm' in South Africa) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture.

A vineyard is often characterised by its terroir, a French term loosely translating as "a sense of place" that refers to the specific geographical and geological characteristics of grapevine plantations, which may be imparted in the wine.

Autumn leaf color is a phenomenon that affects the normally green leaves of many deciduous trees and shrubs by which they take on, during a few weeks in the autumn season, one or many colors that range from red to yellow. The phenomenon is commonly called fall colors and autumn colors, while the expression fall foliage usually connotes the viewing of a tree or forest whose leaves have undergone the change. In some areas of Canada and the United States, "leaf peeping" tourism is a major contribution to economic activity. This tourist activity occurs between the beginning of color changes and the onset of leaf fall.

Mole Valley is a local government district in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Dorking.

The two towns in the district are Dorking and Leatherhead. The largest villages are Ashtead, Fetcham and Great Bookham, in the northern third of the district. The rest of the district includes some of the Surrey Hills AONB, the middle of the district is dominated by the North Downs, including Polesden Lacey, Box Hill, Denbies Wine Estate (the largest vineyard in the country ) and parts of the Pilgrims' Way, the southern third includes Leith Hill and the Greensand Ridge. There are stations on the London–Worthing and Reading–Gatwick Airport railways, and in the northern third, a commuter stopping service from London–Guildford additionally the A23 road and the M25 motorway.

The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. The North Downs lie within two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs. The North Downs Way National Trail runs along the North Downs from Farnham to Dover.