Yearlstone Vineyard

The minute you drive off the lovely A396, down the long winding whitebeam avenue, to Yearlstone Vineyard, you are in a different world. Far below the light and airy new vineyard view terrace cafe, the River Exe winds its way into the sea. The terrace is a suntrap where you can pass away an hour or two sipping a glass of Rose and nibbling on the cafe's light lunches, with the emphasis on seasonal, simple and local.

Just yards away three hectares of vines disappear down the steep south slopes. This is the "grandfather" of the South West Vineyard revival, planted in 1976, many vine growers trained here-and in the last decade it has been greatly expanded by husband and wife team Roger and Juliet White (a trained winemaker) into a prospering business.

There are regular guided tours each week in the summer, and tasting of the estate grown wines.

Yearlstone is also a regional winemaking centre, making wine for several other vineyards. The occasions as an alternative venue-to combine the tours and talks with informal lunches and dinner.

The new light and airy Vineyard Terrace Café-Wine Bar is licensed, can seat up to 30 people inside and 20 outside on the terrace with fantastic views over the vineyard, the Exe valley and the River Exe winding its way to the sea far below. The cafe serves a range of light meals using local food ingredients - we are committed to the Slow Food Movement sourcing wonderful local ingredients - free range eggs, Rowsell fruit and vegetables and local Devon beef.

The Vineyard and Cafe is open most days, from 11am-5pm.

Success at the 2008 English & Welsh Wine of the Year awards: YEARLSTONE-made wines won 8 out of 50 medals ( bronze & Silver ) for wines made from the 2007 vintage. Our top scoring wines were:

Yearlstone Number 3 2007 ( rose ) SILVER MEDAL

Yearlstone Number 6 2007 ( barrel aged dry white ) SILVER MEDAL

Yearlstone Number 4 2007 ( red ) BRONZE MEDAL

Yearlstone Number 5 2007 ( aromatic dry white ) BRONZE MEDAL

Yearlstone Number 6 2006 ( barrel aged dry white ) BRONZE MEDAL

Yearlstone Vintage Brut 2006 ( sparkling ) BRONZE MEDAL

Yearlstone No 1 2007 Highly Commended.

All wines entered got an award! A quick analysis shows that of 20 Silvers awarded for wines of the 2007 vintage we won two. From 30 bronzes awarded for 2007 wines Yearlstone made 6.