Shropshire’s Kerry Vale Vineyard is celebrating after winning their third award in an International Wine Competition.

The vineyard, just outside Montgomery are delighted to have won another award at the prestigious International Wine Challenge 2017. The vineyard won a Commended Award for their 2015 ‘Shropshire Lady’ Dry white wine following two wins last year.

Typically the English wine industry is associated with the Southern counties, however, this important award is an accolade for Kerry Vale Vineyard which demonstrates the capability of vineyards and wineries much further north to produce extremely high quality wine. This is a significant result for the family run vineyard who are proud to be producing award winning wine to an international standard. Last year Kerry Vale Vineyard won a silver and Highly commended for two of their still wines.

The International Wine Challenge (IWC) owned by William Reed Business Media is now in its 34th year. The IWC is accepted as the world’s finest and most meticulously judged wine competition which assesses every wine blind and judges each for its faithfulness to style, region and vintage. Throughout the rigorous judging processes, each medal-winning wine is tasted on three separate occasions by at least 10 different judges and awards include medals (Trophy, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Commended and Great Value awards).

Owner June Ferguson commented: “This is an exciting time for us and we couldn’t be more delighted to be ranked amongst the top wine producers in the country. This is our third vintage and the second international competition we have entered, so we are thrilled to have won an award. Last year we won 16 national awards which we were very pleased with, but international recognition is even better! We would like to thank Halfpenny Green Vineyard who make our wine, without them this would not have been possible.”

Charles Metcalfe, Co-Chairman of the IWC said: “We discovered some really special English wines in this round of the competition, proof that England’s wine industry is flourishing. Most of the top awards went to the sparkling wines, but there were also 11 medals for still wines. The top English bubblies are sure to be firm favourites. They make a fantastic alternative to Champagne –so fizz fans should track them down. Many are available on the high street, so UK shoppers can support our homegrown talent and have a great celebration.”