Yearlstone vineyard

Vine types
• Madeliene Angevine
• Siegerrebe
• Triomph d'Alsace
• Leon Millot
• Reichensteiner

Facilities

• Shop - Friday-Tuesday 10am-6 pm (i.e. Not Thursday and Wednesday except in July and August)
• Vineyard walks
• Farm shop
• 3 hectares of vines on beautiful sloping site
• Own winery
Wine maker Juliet White

Yearlstone is the oldest surviving vineyard in the South-West and consists of nearly 3 hectares of vines on a steep south-facing slope above the Exe Valley. Dry whites, medium dry whites, rose and (in an exceptional year) red wines are produced.The latter are currently winning S.W Vineyard Association medals and sell out quickly , so get there early ! After years of fighting the local planning authority, a shop, winery and house have been built on site
The new winery has a new Howard press and refrigeration units.It is now the centre for Devon wine production, producing wine for a large number of Devon and Somerset vineyards.
LOCATION :- on the A396 Tiverton-Exeter road , a quarter of a mile from the Bickleigh Heritage village.

Yearlstone was planted in 1966 - a memorable drought year - and was the first commercial vineyard to be planted in Devon even though Gillian Pearkes, its founder, had been growing experimentally on quite a large scale for many years prior to this. The site at Yearlstone is quite probably the best in England, it has all the requirements as dictated by the German viticultural gurus - south facing slope, far enough up the slope to be out of the frost pocket, free draining soil, good exposure to the sun, sheltered all the year round by hills and with a confluence of 2 rivers below.

It had the added bonus of a shaly soil, the flat plates of stone both insulate the ground , hold the heat and provide excellent solar reflection up under the bunches.
The initial planting was with Madeliene Angevine, the grape that Gillian championed for so long; Siegerrebe and her 2 Alsatian discoveries found while rootling about at the Viticultural Station in Germany (Leon Millot and Triomph d'Alsace) She also planted her experimental collection which later became the National Collection of grape vines. Later when she had fully realised the potential of the site, she added Chardonnay and the 3 pinot grapes.
Gillian Pearkes was an amazing woman and helped so many people start their viticultural lives with her courses of seminars. These were attended by growers and prospective growers from all over Great Britain, Ireland and even France. Her book, Vinegrowing in Britain, is the bible for cool climate viticulture in both hemispheres and she was visited all the time by people from all over the world drawn by her practical knowledge, enthusism and her unrivalled gift of being able to explain things easily and with limitless patience. Her last magnum opus was the production of 2 video films which were completed by friends after her untimely death.