Latest news:

Jan 2010

Hope you all had a good holiday and now enjoying the cold winter snap. I have added some photos from the vineyard that show you what we have to withstand whilst doing the winter pruning!!. Sales are ticking along and we are almost out of the Orion 2006. The Orion 2007 which won the UKVA Silver award got a good response from the buyers at the Bath Green Park Station Christmas Market as did the newly released Rondo 2007. We are just thinking about the summer vineyard open days that will be on a regular basis as from Easter. Do remember that you can have a private vineyard tour and tastings by arrangement at anytime (£70 for up to 10 persons).

October 2009

We have just finished the harvest with a bumper crop. The Rondo should produce in excess of 2500 bottles and the Orion and Madeleine over 1000 bottles each. The quality of the grapes suggests also that the resulting wine will maintain the standards that we have come to expect.

The 2007 Rondo and Madeleine angevine have both passed the regional quality assessment and are now available for sale. The Rondo 2007 is a full bodied red wine with a hint of blackberry fruitiness and we are very pleased with it and both the 2006 and 2007 vintages show the importance of letting the wine mature in our cellars for 2 years. The Madeleine angevine is a medium dry white wine with citrussy/grapefruit flavours.

The Orion 2007 has just won a silver award at the 2009 UKVA competition. Only the top 20 vineyards (there are over 450 vineyards) in the UK won silver or gold awards. This is now on sale at £90/case of 12

We have an open day organised for the 23rd August. This is your opportunity to visit the vineyard and have a guided tour of the site and get to taste the full range of wines that we produce. Only £5/person which includes the tasting and a £1/bottle discount on all wines. Tours at 2-5pm and bring a picnic if the weather looks good

Please phone 01225 862 334 or 07835 265 082 or email alan@quoins.demon.co.uk to reserve a place.

Look up the pictures section to see the perfect view over the vineyard taken from a passing balloon

Tours 2009: Groups tours and tastings on other dates by arrangement (10 people minimum £7/person). Directions: Turn off the A361 Bradford-on-Avon to Bath road to Little Ashley opposite the Cumberwell Golf Course

8^th July 2008 - UKVA national wine competition  the Quoins organic  2006 Orion was awarded a bronze medal in the annual national tasting competition.

Waitrosehas been keen to expand the number of stores that stock the Quoins wines and I soon hope to have a selection available at Salisbury, Malborough, Gillingham and Portishead as well as at Bath And Bristol.

10th March 2008 - the 2006 Madeleine angevine which is sold under the 'Zephyr' label has just won a Bronze award at the Wessex Vineyards Association Wine Tasting event. This puts it at the regional quality level and so I have changed the label accordingly. The wine is now sold as Madeleine angevine and not Zephyr.

8th March 2008 - Good news indeed - turning over a stone near the pond, low and behold, a crested newt sitting and waiting for spring. I assume that it has migrated over the hedge from the wheelwrights pond and decided living here is more comfortable.

We had a good year in 2007 despite the poor weather. The non-organic growers reported failed crops as a result of the outbreak of downey mildew. We didn't suffer that badly as we have two varieties Rondo and Orion that are mildew tolerant as well as following management practices that reduce conditions favourable to disease development eg plucking leaves from around the bunches of grapes to encourage drying out of the bunches.

Thus we expect in the region of 1,700 bottles of Orion, 750 bottles of Rondo and 1000 bottles of Madeleine angevine for sale in September

We have agreed to supply Waitrose stores in Stroud, Cirencester, Bath and Westbury so keep an eye out for it. Sales are progressing well at local shops and Farm shops around Bradford-on-Avon with them all renewing their orders recently.

Finally The 2006 vintage Artemis is now available for sale