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 SWVA member, George Musgrave, 66, who ran Polmassick Vineyard in St Ewe, Cornwall, with his wife Barbara, 62, was killed when half a tonne of empty bottles fell on the father of two. He was airlifted to the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske, but later died from his injuries.
Police are not treating his death as suspicious but the Health and Safety Executive is investigating the cause of the accident, which happened after a lorry had arrived with a delivery.
Mrs Musgrave said: “George and I were standing at the back of the lorry to help guide it. This pallet of bottles, which must have weighed half a tonne, shot off the back of the lorry and George couldn’t move out of the way fast enough.”
The SWVA wishes to express their deepest sympathies to Barbara and family.
(read The Times article)
 Three Choirs are building new lodge rooms in the heart of the vineyard combine luxurious accommodation with a haven of peace and tranquillity in leafy Gloucestershire. These wooden lodges will be opening in June and are stuated just 500 metres from the main vineyard buildings, in the heart of the vineyard and overlooking the string of ponds in the valley below the restaurant.
Each lodge is separated from its neighbour by several rows of vines. They all have a double bedroom with king size bed and a bathroom with both a large bath and separate shower. All lodges also have an inviting veranda which runs around two sides of the building, giving the choice of sun or shade.
Each morning a breakfast hamper is delivered to the doorstep and guests who fancy a cooked breakfast the lodges are a short stroll from the vineyard restaurant which can also be booked for lunch and dinner. If eating al fresco is more up your street, the vineyard can also provide barbeque packs for those who want to immerse themselves fully in the beauty of their surroundings.
A stay in the lodge, or in their main 8-room hotel could be combined with one of Three Vineyard Experience Days, which offer the chance to find out what it really is like to work as a winemaker! The day starts at 10am with tea and coffee in the winery. From here you will don your Three Choirs overalls and boots and venture in to the vineyard to help with whatever tasks are required depending on the time of year. This may be pruning, canopy management, shoot rubbing, trellising repairs or even a spot of grape picking.
On return to the winery mid-morning enjoy a tutored wine tasting with one of the wine makers, followed by a 3-course lunch in the Vineyard restaurant. Your host will choose suitable wines to accompany the meal and will explain how they were made.
After lunch it is back to the winery and the opportunity to help in various areas of wine production - this may be on the bottling line, labelling, filtering or monitoring fermentations.
Finally at the end of the day you can choose 2 bottles of wine to take away with you and you will receive an “Apprentice Winemaker” certificate!
All bookings are taken at www.threechoirs.com
Yearlstone has been voted fastest improving vineyard in England for the second year running by the prestigious publication WINE REPORT 2008 compiled by experts around the world. The REPORT - itself voted the best wine guide/wine book - put Yearlstone Number One in its Top Ten for 2007 - and said "The Top 10 is probably the most useful indicator. While the rest of the market lags behind you can benefit from the inside knowledge of Wine Report, buying up top performing wines long before others cotton and prices increase". Yearlstone was in exalted company - in the Rhone Valley the fastest improving producer was Domaine de la Mordoree from Chateauneuf du Pape, and in the Loire Chateau de Passavant from Anjou. In the national review of English wine, the Report said " The changes occurring in the English wine scene are remarkable. With the area under vine occupied by sparkling wine varieties having doubled in three years and even more planting in the pipeline....the story has never been far away from the airwaves and the press. "
** The author of WINE REPORT - the Essential Insiders Guide to the World of Wine - is sparkling wine expert Tom Stevenson, with a team of regional specialists covering each major wine region of the world. Published by Dorling Kindersley £9.99 Voted Best Wine Reference Book in 2007 by Decanter magazine.
Link to: Yearlstone vineyard
Link to: Wine Report
Third Devon Wine Week now being planned. At last count Devon had 22 vineyards, up from 6 vineyards 10 years ago. Already signed up: Yearlstone, Sharpham, Pebblebed, Manstree, National Trust Knightshayes, Willhayne. Hopefully we will get quite a few more in the next few weeks. The full programme will be available at the Yearlstone and Pebblebed websites. This year's sponsors are Brend Hotels - the biggest hotel chain in Devon. Last year was solicitors Ashfords. We hope to raise at least the £5000 sponsorship package we achieved in 07. Main downside is the lack of wine to sell among Devon vineyards due to the low yielding 2007 vintage. For more information, please contact Roger White at Yearlstone Vineyard roger@yearlstone.co.uk
Devon Wine Week runs as part of the national English Wine Week
English and Welsh wine producers have particular reason to celebrate the New Year, following the announcement just before Christmas that extension to the EU wide planting ban will not apply to the UK. The EU Council has agreed to a permanent exclusion of the UK from the planting rights regime.
This planting restriction had been the greatest challenge to the continued development of the wine industry in the UK, which has been growing very successfully over many years. Under this EU planting ban, UK wine producers would have had to stop any further planting once production exceeded 3.3million bottles (25,000 hectolitres), averaged over 5 years. Although the EU Commission wanted to get rid of the planting restrictions, they were forced to compromise and extend the ban to 2015, in order to get other reforms through, which are designed to make EU production more competitive.
The Planting Ban was introduced in the EU in 1999 in response to the over production of poor quality wine in the larger member state producing countries which resulted in the infamous ‘wine lake’. The current EU Wine Reform, introduced by EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, aims to revive the languishing European wine industry. Meanwhile, the UK has been steadily producing more and more quality wine, especially within the sparkling wine sector, and demand from both domestic and overseas markets has never been higher. The UK’s representative industry body, the UK Vineyards Association (UKVA), therefore argued that capping the expansion of this vibrant industry, which is completely unsubsidised, would fly in the face of the new Common Agricultural Policy.
The UKVA has worked closely with Defra, the NFU and MEPs to lobby against the restrictions. Bob Lindo, Chairman of the UKVA Council said, “If you had told me at the beginning of our campaign that we would get virtually all of our demands in such a short time, then I wouldn’t have believed you. The House of Lords Select Committees were right ‘on side’ from the very beginning. Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat (and UKIP) MPs, MEPs and Peers all supported us and many others as a result of our media campaign.
“It shows what can be achieved when we all sing from the same hymn sheet, and we should never underestimate just what has been achieved.”
Mike Roberts of RidgeView Wine Estate, and one of the key members of the UKVA’s EU Wine Reform Working Group, commented: “Our recent and current rate of planting will yield a production of over 4 million bottles by 2012 – an increase of over 100% of our present production. Further expansion is planned for this and the next years and we foresee our production may well double again. The UK is producing and building a demand for what is now recognised as world-class and competitive wines, without any subsidy or market assistance from the EU. We have fulfilled the prime objective of the EU Commission’s wine reform – to have European countries produce what the consumer wants. The EU has acknowledged our efforts by exempting us from the planting ban.”
EU wine reform amendments have also lifted bans on unlisted grape varieties, as well as the listing of grape varieties and vintage on table wine labels. These reform measures have been put in place to increase the competitiveness of European wines in the face of stiff competition from New World producers.
The lifting of the ban shows the credibility that English and Welsh wines have built up and will encourage the continued development of the UK’s wine industry. |
