Yearlstone in the Press and Media

June 2008: South-West England Catching North-East France

A panel of expert wine tasters, including Masters of Wine Alastair Peebles and Jan Critchley-Simonson, judged Yearlstone's 2004 Vintage Brut worthy of a Bronze medal, a few marks below Pol Roger's Brut Tradition and Moet and Chandon Brut Imperial, both of which won silvers.

Yearlstone's 2006 Vintage Brut missed another Bronze medal by one point (75 = bronze) scoring a total of 74 points in the tasting.

Panel chairman Jan Critchley-Simonson said afterwards "We found it quite difficult to identify the Champagnes from the traditionally made Devon sparkling wines - which gives an indication of the greatly improved quality of local wines."

Yearlstone's Roger White commented "We are so new to the sparkling wine game that it's astonishing to get so close to some of the biggest names in Champagne. Our vintage Brut 2006 had only 9 months on the lees* - whereas we would like to have been able to leave it 4-5 years as in Champagne. We have more Brut ageing in the cellar - and will release more after a year and a half and two years on the lees - we hope these will be even better..."

* lees - top quality sparkling wine is left to undergo a secondary fermentation in bottle ( on the lees ). A minimum of 9 months is needed - but the longer the wine is left the more toasty and biscuity flavours should develop....

FOOTNOTE; Yearlstone's Vintage Brut 04 was described as "magic" by Oz Clarke on BBC 1 in the autumn of 2007. Yearlstone-made wines took 8 out of 65 awards for the 2006 vintage at the English Wine of the Year competition in June 2007. The winemaker is Juliet White, who trained at Plumpton College. Yearlstone's 2006 Vintage Brut is on sale for £16.95 only direct from the vineyard. A pink vintage Brut will be released in midsummer 2008.

for more information contact roger@yearlstone.co.uk or ring 01884 855700

FULL PANEL OF JUDGES:

Alastair Peebles MW
Jan Critchley-Simonson
Andy Whiteman (owner of the Nobody Inn, Doddiscombsleigh and the Harris Arms Lewdown)
Richard Hartley (owner of the Culm Valley Inn, Culmstock)
Mark Butler (Cellarmarque Wines Ltd)