During the 1970s the highly successful village flower show could boast only two wine classes - one white and one red. Our members soon began to boost the entries in these classes and the flower show committee decided in their wisdom to ask the Wine Circle to organise the “wine section”. Today the Circle runs its own annual wine festival under the auspices of the flower show with 16 classes, including liqueurs and beer, which are judged by national judges. Gone are the odd bottle shapes and sizes. All wines are exhibited in uniform Bordeaux-shaped bottles, all identically labelled. It is a festival of which the Circle can be justly proud.
     
     The festival is held on the third Saturday in August in the Dampier Room of the village hall and attracts over 100 entries. For those entering the festival it is an opportunity to have their wines assessed by national experts and to discuss their entries at a ‘judges at the bar’ session. Members also act as judges’ stewards, an experience they find not only educational but most enjoyable. Having gained experience from the village festival a number of members have gone on to achieve successes at the annual county festival, organised by the Somerset Association of Amateur Winemakers to which the Circle is affiliated. The Circle has won the inter-circle cup for the four bottle wine class on three occasions and last year came away with 11 trophies, including that for most points overall and most points in the wine and beer section and the best wine in show.
    
     Further successes were achieved at regional level as a result of which the Circle joined the South Western Counties Wine and Beer Makers Federation. In October, 2002 at their first major effort in the regional festival members won the coveted most points in festival shield. In the following year, as runners up, they missed the trophy by a narrow margin but won it again in 2004 along with a new trophy for most points overall, which included cookery. Last year Coker were runners up again.

     During the 20th anniversary year the committee decided that, although not a charity fund raising organisation, it would be a good idea to mark the Millennium by doing something tangible and worthwhile for a local cause. “Come Dine With Us”, a superb book of three course menus with recipes, which could be mixed and matched, was published. Each course offered advice on what to drink with each course and each recipe contained some alcohol to enhance the flavours of the meal. Recipes, contributed mainly by our own members and some by other Wine Circles around the county of Somerset, were boosted by some 20 meals contributed by celebrities from television, films and radio. This venture raised £15,000 towards the Yeovil Hospice Appeal and in the following year a sponsored cycle ride by members raised a further £1,600 for the same appeal. In appreciation of the Circle's efforts the Hospice trustees invited the Circle to name a room at the new hospice which was opened in December, 2003. As the vine is the Christian symbol for love, the Circle felt it appropriate for the in-patients' sitting room, hence 'The Vine Room'.
     
      During its 25th anniversary year there was a special charity concert given by the South Western R.A.F.A. band at East Coker to raise money for the band and the Royal British Legion. As a result £500 was given to the Royal British Legion towards a new Legion house at Wester-super-Mare.

     The 30th anniversary year efforts supported the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance and the Yeovil Cardiac Unit, and raised money from a golf tournament at Halstock Golf Club and from the sale of an "alternative" calendar depicting Circle members tastefully "undressed".