A VINEYARD near Northlew has been celebrating both the launch of its latest wines during Devon Wine Week and the receipt of grant support from the Rural Development Programme for England.

The owners of Eastcott Vineyard have been awarded partial funding towards the purchase of the equipment necessary to conduct the final stage processing of their first sparkling wine on-site, without the need to send it away for completion.

Hilary Waller said: 'It is fundamental to our approach to be able to carry out all stages of processing at the vineyard, so that our wines will have zero "food miles".'

The new equipment is now on order and will be used later in the summer to prepare the first batch of sparkling wine, ready for sale in time for Christmas.

The grant funding has also allowed the vineyard to improve insulation in the winery, further stabilising the temperature range without the need for air-conditioning. And a rain-water harvesting system has been installed on the winery roof, to reduce reliance on using the domestic water supply for washing down floors after processing the grapes.

Devon Wine Week runs until June 6.