Monmouthshire Vineyards raise a glass to their success!

Monmouthshire’s vineyards proved their wines to be some of the best in the South West of Britain at the South West Vineyards Association annual competition held on Friday & Saturday 11th & 12th September 2010.

Vineyards from across the S.W. of England and S. Wales entered their wines. 93 wines received awards of which 10 went to the 3 Monmouthshire vineyards- Ancre Hill Estates, Parva Farm Vineyard & Wernddu Wine. The competition was judged at Three Choirs Vineyards at Newent on Friday with a blind tasting by 5 wine experts. On Saturday everyone gathered at Ancre Hill Estates at Monmouth to try the wines. After a very good lunch, the results of the previous day’s judging were announced.

The Monmouthshire countryside was looking lovely in the sunshine and Ancre Hill’s vineyard was a picture with a very good crop of grapes nearly ready for harvesting. The hard work of owners Richard and Joy Morris certainly showed and awards of a silver for their medium dry white and bronzes for their dry white and rose wines were certainly justified.

A little further down the Wye Valley at Tintern is Parva Farm Vineyard owned by Colin & Judith Dudley. They received a silver award for their dry white, bronzes for their medium dry white, rose & sparkling rose and a H.C. for their sparkling wine. Colin said “We are particularly pleased with the silver for our Bacchus dry white 2009 as Bacchus has always been our flagship wine and our customers love it. We are hoping for a really good crop of grapes this year so our 2010 wines should be as good or even better!”

It was the first time of entering this competition for Frank & Leigh Strawford of Wernddu Wine at Pen-y-clawdd, near Raglan. They are the only organic vineyard in Monmouthshire and Frank makes their wine in their own winery at the farm. Recognition of the quality of their wines is a great boost for them after years of hard work setting up the vineyard and getting it registered organic. Frank and Leigh commented, “Bronze for our dry white and H.C. for the Brut Sparkling are truly awards worth waiting for. We look forward to going onwards and upwards-cheers to the 2012 harvest!”

For these three vineyards to do so well speaks volumes about the quality of the grapes produced in this part of Monmouthshire and of the hard work of the owners. For a good day out what could be better than a drive through the beautiful Monmouthshire countryside, visiting the vineyards, trying the wines and meeting the people who produced them.

For more information on these award winning vineyards see:
Parva Farm: website link
Ancre Hill Estates: website link
Wernddu Organics: website link