2026 Awards
2026 is the 4th Year for the Essex Wine Awards and will be held at the Clay Hill Vineyard in the Crouch Valley. Clay Hill has a long history for growing excellent grapes, selling their grapes as far as Cornwall and making amazing wines. The competition will be judged using the International Wines and Spirits Competition and the Decanter World Wine Awards standards. Only wines that reach those high standards will be awarded medals. Even though this is a regional competition, the wines from Essex are world class and deserve to be treated so.
2026 will see the continuation of the Roy Martin Award for innovation. In 2024 Clay Hill Vineyard won the first award for their Riesling and in 2025 New Hall Vineyard won it for their Sparkling Bacchus made in the Charmonte method (how Prosecco is made).
PUBLIC TASTING
There will be a public tasting of the wines submitted on 20th June 2026 at Clay Hill Vineyard from 12pm, the cost is £5 per person.
There will also be a Master Class tasting with Alison at 10.30M on the 20th June 2026, the cost is £20 per person.
Clay Hill Vineyard address is
Below are details of this years Judges