Budleigh grape picking success

SCORES of people descended on a two-acre vineyard in Budleigh Salterton last week to help pick grapes. Alan Pratt, who owns Lily Farm, in Dalditch Lane, Knowle, said a number of people helped picked the crops at the site which was recently named the best

SCORES of people descended on a two-acre vineyard in Budleigh Salterton last week to help pick grapes.

Alan Pratt, who owns Lily Farm, in Dalditch Lane, Knowle, said a number of people helped picked the crops at the site which was recently named the best wine producer in the west.

The 55-year-old, who runs the farm with his wife Faye, said the grapes were then taken to a winery where they have made both a red and Rose-type wine.

"It's a great feeling when you are picking grapes - it is like you are in another country.

It was, however, very hard work."

Alan said rainfall in part of the summer made the grapes swell which helped a harvest as well good sunshine in the latter part of the season to enrich the sugar element.

"It also helps that our vineyard is on a slope. The concentration of grapes is greater where there more of an intensity of heat."

He added: "We are just trying to create something for the people of Budleigh and Knowle and want to produce wine at a local level."

Alan and his wife have both studied at a college in East Sussex to learn how to grow grapes and make wine.

Lily Farm's red table wine won the John Buchan trophy at the South West Vineyards Association's annual blind tasting.

The couple also scooped a bronze award in the main red wine category.