Sussex vineyards win the most accolades in final round of prestigious competition

The Trophy winners of the WineGB Awards were announced at the Awards Luncheon and Ceremony, by Awards co-chairs Susie Barrie MW and Oz Clarke OBE, at Drapers Hall in London.

West Sussex’s Digby Fine English secured their place in the Hall of Fame this year, scooping the Trophies for Best Classic Cuvée Vintage and Top Sparkling for their 2013 Vintage Reserve Brut, and were also crowned Supreme Champion at the Awards.

It was another successful year for Sugrue South Downs who took the Trophies for Classic Cuvée NV/MV for Cuvée Dr Brendan O’Regan MV, Blanc de Blancs for their Cuvée Boz Coldharbour Single Vineyard 2015, as well as being named Best Boutique Producer.

Ridgeview’s Blanc de Noirs 2015 was named Best Blanc de Noirs, and Bluebell Vineyard Estates’ Hindleap Rosé 2016 was awarded the Trophy for Best Sparkling Rosé.

Key wins were also gained by Essex’s Tuffon Hall Vineyard who won Best Still Rosé for their Pinot Noir Rosé, Beatrice 2022 and Sandridge Barton of Devon who picked up the Trophy for Best Still Pinot Noir for their Pinot Noir 2020, which was also the joint winner of Top Still Wine.

Sussex’s Wiston Estate won the Contract Winery Trophy and Hampshire’s Candover Brook was named Best Newcomer.

Susie Barrie MW said: “What’s perhaps most satisfying about chairing this competition each year, beyond the sheer joy of being able to taste and compare so many of the UK’s finest wines, is seeing new names appear on the list of medals. For a competition like this to have value, it needs to attract the best of the best, whether new or established, large, medium or small.

"We want to taste the wines of producers who push the boundaries and are uncompromising in their quest for quality, and we have yet to be disappointed. A huge thank you to everyone who enters the WineGB Awards, I feel so lucky and privileged to judge this competition.”

Oz Clarke OBE said: “We judges get such a thrill when we realise we’ve given medals to wineries we didn’t know, and it’s really rewarding to think we’re setting them on the path to greater things.

"We have a wine nation that has barely begun to exploit its potential. Every year we have more growers and winemakers brimming over with imagination and ambition. Every

year new areas of Britain stand up proud and say - we can do it too.

"We have the chance in the next generation to become one of the world’s greatest cool climate wine nations. And this year’s Awards competition shows that we’re going about it in the right way.”

Ned Awty, interim CEO for WineGB added: “The 2023 Awards has given us a record number of entries and has embraced the wide scope and range of styles we now proudly produce in Britain.

"There are great results from small and large producers alike and from different regions across the country. We’re really proud of what this competition is setting out to achieve – to highlight and promote the excellence of our producers and wines. Congratulations to all the many winners!”