Yearlstone Vineyard - Devon's Oldest Vineyard

Feb 2008: Roger's Weekly Vineyard Diary in "Western Morning News"

Starting on Saturday Roger's starting doing a diary for the Western Morning News on the vineyard year. It will be in the Food section of the Weekend paper - here's Roger's first item: Had our first meeting for Devon Wine Week which begins on May 24. I counted 24 Devon vineyards now. Seems we won't get any sponsorship from DEFRA this year - local food lost out it seems to climate change on their priority list. Funny - I would have thought they might have been connected...However Yearlstone records since 1976 show no evidence of any climate change in earlier ripening dates at all.

Dec 2007: Roger's Christmas Wine Guide in "Devon Today"

Roger was asked to do a Christmas Wine Guide for Devon Today; here's a scan of the full wine guide... enjoy! The article begins: "Devon's reputation for fine wine is growing. In fact you may be surprised by how favourably its wines compare with wines from France and Australia. Devon's oldest vineyard is Yearlstone, located 200 feet above sea level"..

Dec 2007: Western Morning News - the Bright Lights of Home (review of Devon wines) by Susy Atkins

In December, the Western Morning News featured a review entitled "The Bright Lights of Home", by Susy Atkins, the wine adviser to Richard & Judy, all about Devon wine.

She says: "the winemakers who work with the fruit are now highly qualified and own the same modern equipment used in wineries throughout the great regions of the world" and adds that "many local wineries, such as Yearlstone, Sharpham [etc] are producing attractive dry whites". Our Yearlstone No 1 is one of four "Try These" recommendations, described as "Lemony and fresh, with an appley nose and mineral crispness. Fans of sauvignon blanc should enjoy this".

Nov 2007: Devon Life - review of the Cadeleigh Arms, featuring our wine

In November, Devon Life printed an excellent review of the Cadeleigh Arms restaurant, run by Elspeth Burrage and Jane Dreyer, which said that the delicious food was "perfectly accompanied by the lovely Yearlstone No 2 white wine from a vineyard in Bickleigh, a mile away". Congratulations to Elspeth and Jane for an excellent review!

Sept 2007: Yearlstone Fizz gets rave reviews from BBC Countryfile with Oz Clarke

The BBC's Countryfile team recently brought TV personality Oz Clarke along to sample Yearlstone's sparkling wine - Vintage Brut 2004. The programme aired on BBC 1 on August 30th.

"More like Champagne than champagne itself" was Oz's message - as he waxed lyrical over the quality of a bottle of fizz during the filming of the Countryfile feature on the new Devon Wine Trail. "This is absolutely fantastic fizz" he announced as his fellow presenter Lotte Duncan cracked open our bubbly on the Yearlstone viewing area on a lovely summer's day. Back at the studio, the rest of the Countryfile team sampled the fizz again, and all three of them loved it!

Oz was also impressed by Yearlstone's rosé (Number 3) which the TV crew had sampled as Wine of the Month at their hotel - the Best Western in Tiverton - the night before, and by the Number 1 and Number 5 dry whites.

Our new 2006 fizz will be ready just before Christmas, priced at £14.50 - and we've sampled it already and reckon it's even better than the fizz Oz and Lotte tasted in June! We can take phone orders, please give us a call if you're interested!

June 2007 - The Decanter's article on New Zealand vs Devon wines

In June 2007, the first Devon vs New Zealand Wine Competition was held at the Devon Wine School in Cheriton Fitzpaine Devon. Devon wines put in a respectable showing against some of the world's best wines - selected and put forward by New Zealand marketers and importers. Yearlstone's Sparkling Vintage Brut led the Devon charge - rated as highly as New Zealand's Montana Chardonnay/Pinot Noir fizz - both were awarded a bronze medal.

Here's the respected wine magazine The Decanter's writeup of the competition by Dominic Rippon.

Nov 2006 - Yearlstone featured in "the Great British Summer" on BBC1

Yearlstone's preparations for the 2006 grape harvest were featured on November 26th on prime time BBC1 television at 8pm, in the final episode of the Great British Summer presented by the indefatigable Alan Titchmarsh. Approximately 15 minutes of the hour long programme were dedicated to Yearlstone! Viewers were treated to a fine display of Juliet and Roger obsessively worrying about sugar content in their grapes, performing the essential hundred-berry test, and deciding exactly when to start picking - and who's available at very short notice.

Please get in touch

If anyone from the press and media would like to write about Yearlstone, or film at Yearlstone, please get in touch and have a chat with us. We'll be happy to help!