2010

BBC Somerset Sound Oct 1: Across Somerset, farmers and food producers are harvesting their 2010 crops.. 3 min feature on Oatley’s Madeleine Angevine harvest, link here

2009

Western Daily Press Oct 10 2009 (Double page spread) Thanks a bunch Everything’s Vine Here! Oatley Vineyard has produced bottles of such fine vintages they’re beating international growers at their own game. Listen carefully: The only sounds are the click of secateurs, the murmur of conversation and the occasional burst of laughter... this is the noise the English grape harvest makes on Oatley Vineyard in Somerset.....this year both yield and quality are likely to be exceptional, even by Oatley’s standards....”The key time when the vines are in flower is June, and June was fantastic,” said Iain,”That meant we had an excellent set of flowers into grapes, and at the moment they are in wonderful condition.”

South West Food: Sep/Oct  2009: South West vineyards success Vineyards from Cornwall, Somerset and Devon are celebrating success at the prestigious International Wine Challenge 2009 and Decanter World Wine Awards 2009......Oatley Vineyard won two (Decanter) commended awards..... also three commended medals at at the International Wine Challenge 2009.

Mid Somerset News: Aug 19th 2009 Cannington’s vineyard has won four commendations in two international wine challenges. 23-year-old Oatley Vineyard ...

Wine Society report of Decanter World Wine Awards Oct 2009 (UK Wines):

Commended Under £10 (White) (4 wines)
Oatley Vineyard, Leonora's, Somerset, 2006
Oatley Vineyard, Somerset, 2007
Parva Farm Vineyard, Tintern Parva Bacchus, Monmouthshire, Wales, 2006
Penarth Estate, Pink, Montgomeryshire, Wales, NV

2008

Somerset Life Sep 08: Somerset Wine Takes On the World! ...Decanter World Wine Awards...attracted more entries from producers worldwide than ever before. After going head-to-head with winemakers from around the world, Oatley Vineyard, Cannington, scooped a commended award for their Leonora’s 2006.... Decanter’s tasting director says, “It is always delightful to showcase British wines and show that they can hold their own in the most influential wine competition in the world...”

South West Food Sep 08: Oatley Vineyard Cannington won a Decanter World Wine Award for its white Leonora’s 2006

Bridgwater Mercury 19th Aug 2008: Cannington vineyard produces another award-winning wine...Decanter tasting director Christelle Guilbert:” The overall standard of British entries was higher than ever this year. It is a great achievement that a Somerset vineyard has received this accolade”

Harpers Wine & Spirit 14th August 2008 English winemakers will scoop a total of 19 medals at this year's Decanter World Wine Awards....The overall standard of global entries was higher than ever this year so it is a great achievement that nine English vineyards made it on to the medals table. (lists Bookers, Camel Valley, Chapel Down, Denbies, Hush Heath, Meopham Valley, Nyetimber, Oatley and RidgeView)

8th August 2008 Western Daily Press: A vineyard in Somerset is celebrating its third international wine award this year.

9th August 2008 Western Morning News: Oatley Vineyard... 2006 Leonora’s wine was one of only two English wines under £10 to win a Decanter award.

Spaxton News June/July 2008: .....Stop at the top of a the hill for a view of the lands from the Quantocks to the sea. Down the other side and just as damp hedgerows close in on you the lane opens out at Oatley Vineyard. Here about 3 acres of vines (some 20 years old) produce some excellent wines. You won’t find them in shops but the proprietors welcome enquiries if you phone first 671340.

2007

Bridgwater Mercury 18th Sep 2007. Optimism after Early Harvest: Predictions of doom and gloom for Somerset produce following the wet summer have been greatly exaggerated, according to a Sedgemoor vineyard which has just recorded its earliest ever harvest. Iain and Jane Awty of Oatley Vineyard... told the Mercury that the recent Indian summer had done wonders. They said: "Grape picking in September is new to us....Super weather in April and a lovely autumn to help the grapes ripen seems to have done the trick.

BBC Radio Somerset and Radio Gloucester 24th May 2007: Milking cows, pruning vines, fishing in mud. First stop: Brymore School, Cannington (Tel: 01278 652369) Second stop: Oatley Vineyard, Cannington (Tel: 01278 671340) Third stop: Stolford's Mud Fisherman Fourth stop: Yeo Valley, Cannington (Tel: 01761 462798)

Earlier

The Guardian Country Diary 2005: Pick of the Bunch: Somerset. In the 60’s a dozen or so vineyards sprang up in Somerset, but the 2005 leaflet of the South West Vineyards Association records only two. We visited one of them, near Cannington, and the man who had settled his family there on an ancient farm with a field of one hectare. The field is tilted towards the sun, just high enough not to flood, and yet just above the level of the silt of the Parrett estuary (as the vineyards of Pauillac and St Estephe lie just above the sandy banks of the Gironde), and therefore low enough to be sufficiently warm. The young generation may be eyeing the market and looking elsewhere to earn a living but he had evidently found here the life he wanted.

He grows two varieties of grapes - Madeleine Angevine (early) and Kernling (late) - on red, sandy loam watered by underground springs. The operation is geared to producing a limited amount of fine and distinctive, genuinely dry wine. At harvest time, boys from a nearby school tht teaches rural-skills arrive to pick the Madeleine Angevine, and friends and neighbours (mostly customers, and there is a waiting list for the job) come to pick the Kernling. Afterwards they enjoy a meal at trestle tables, spread with white tablecloths, and a bottle to take home. When we arrived. the owner was delicately trimming lower leaves to let light and air get to the swelling fruits, a task, he said, on the scale of trimming a hedge all the way to Bridgwater, eight miles away. There are intervals for relaation in winter and September, but otherwise, given sunshine, the delicate flavours in the bottle are won by devoted toil.  John Vallins

Bridgwater Mercury Oct 12 1999: Cannington’s White Wine is a real corker One of the best white wines in the South West is made in Cannington .... Oatley Vineyard, which produces a few hundreds of cases of wine a year, has scored a treble this year.....the SW Vineyards Association Committee Cup (for the second time) and two awards in the International Wine Challenge....Only 20 English wines gained awards so Oatley definitely got more than its fair share!

L’Academie du Vin Devon 15 Jul 1998: English Wine Challenge Oatley Vineyard’s Vintage Dry...second place - superb 1995 vintage pleased all...Oatley picked later than most vineyards enabling them to achieve greater body and finesse, but without losing the acidity.

Bridgwater Mercury Jun 6 1995: Top Show Award for Vineyard: A Cannington vineyard has won the highest accolade in the English Wine Competition at the Royal Bath & West of England Show. Oatley Vineyard won the Supreme Champion with Oatley Kerner 1990. The vineyard also won two golds (Oatley Kernling 1991 and Oatley Madeleine Angevine 1991) and two silver awards (Oatley Kernling 1992 and Oatley Madeleine Angevine 1994). Mr Awty told the Mercury:” It proves our policy of high quality, slow maturing wine is really paying off.

Bristol Evening Post Jun 2 1993: Fun Bonanza’s Corking Start Corks popped today at the.Royal Bath & West Show. Winners of the wine competition Steve and Alison Brooksbank, of Bagborough, and Iain and Jane Awty, of Oatley, Cannington set the celebrations off to a sparkling start.

Bristol Evening Post Jan 11 1992: Couple’s Corking Success What bottle! A tiny Somerset vineyard is selling its latest vintage to the French....1990 vintage, commended in an international competition run by Wine Magazine..judges described the wine as clean, lively and very drinkable.....went down well with connoisseurs in France who admitted being curious and surprised.

Bridgwater Mercury Aug 16 1988 Return to the Land: Iain Awty has swapped his high-powered job selling computers with a multi-national firm in London for a taste of the good life on a vineyard near Cannington....They spent a year touring the south of England from Suffolk to Devon...When they came across the Oatley location, with its south-facing field on a slope, they knew they were on to a winner. Their first crop will be harvested in late October and will go on sale next summer. Mr Awty said: “We are aiming to make a fruity, dry, white wine.....Good winemakers can make reasonable wine out of bad grapes and great wine out of good grapes, but it is possible to make awful wine out of the best grapes. It’s what makes wine-making interesting”.