Budleigh wine a success

A CHEEKY little number from a small Budleigh Salterton wine producer has been named the best in the west - just three years after the vineyard opened. At the South West Vineyards Association s annual blind tasting the red table wine produced by Lily Farm

A CHEEKY little number from a small Budleigh Salterton wine producer has been named the best in the west - just three years after the vineyard opened.

At the South West Vineyards Association's annual blind tasting the red table wine produced by Lily Farm Vineyard won the John Buchan trophy for the best red wine from a small scale producer.

The two acre vineyard, owned by husband and wife team Faye and Alan Pratt from Moormead, also won the bronze medal for the same wine - despite competing against larger and some of the top wine producers in the UK.

Faye Pratt said: "Our first vintage has been awarded The John Buchan Agronomy Shield and also a bronze award in the main red wine category where we competed alongside top wine producers in the UK.

"We are very excited to have received such prestigious recognition of the quality of our wine and we will work to maintain this standard in future vintages."

The vineyard leapt to prominence in 2007 when their first ever Rondo grape harvest was ready for picking a month before anywhere else in Britain.

It is thought that was the earliest recorded picking of the grape in the country.

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