Join Lyme Bay Winery at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials 2026

Lyme Bay Winery will be at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials from Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 September 2026, and you will find us at Stand F2 on the Food Walk.

It is a long way from the Axe Valley, and we are rather looking forward to it.

Find us at Stand F2

We are on the Food Walk, at Stand F2. It runs alongside the shopping avenues and it is where all the specialist food and drink producers gather, so follow your nose and keep going until you reach us. The Food Walk opens at 8.30am each day and closes at 5.30pm from Thursday to Saturday, and at 5pm on the Sunday. We will be there for the whole of it, so there is no need to rush.

Come and taste with us. You are very welcome to try the wines, take a glass away with you and watch the world go by. You can also pick up bottles to take home at a special event price. There is no appointment to make and no obligation to buy anything.

If you are not sure where to start, tell us what you normally drink and we will find you something you will like. We are always happy to talk about the vineyards and the growers we work with, so do ask.

What we are pouring

English wines are coming with us. Here is a little about each of them. Shoreline 2024 is our signature blend and our bestseller, and it is where we would start you. Dry, crisp and made with seafood in mind, from fruit grown in the Crouch Valley in Essex. Eight grape varieties go into it, which is unusual by anyone’s standards, and it is the wine that first put us on the map.

Chardonnay 2019 comes next. This is our limited-release Chardonnay rather than the everyday Covepoint, richer and more structured, with melon and tangerine still coming through. There is not a great deal of it about, so it is one to try while it lasts.

Pinot Noir Rosé 2025 is the deeper of our two rosés, closer to redcurrant than the usual pale pink. That colour comes from ripe fruit and careful skin contact rather than sugar, so do not let it put you off if you drink dry. It is happy on its own as an aperitif and just as happy alongside lunch.

Pinot Noir 2024 is our red, made from fruit grown at five vineyards near the River Crouch in Essex and aged in a third new French oak. Red cherry and raspberry with something savoury and earthy underneath. It took Silver at the International Wine and Spirit Competition 2026 and Bronze at the International Wine Challenge. Serve it a touch below room temperature and it will thank you for it.

Two ways to win

We are running two prize draws over the four days, and there are three bottles of English wine waiting at the end of each of them. One of them you can enter online, whenever suits you, whether you are coming to Burghley or not. The other happens in person at the stand, every single day we are there.

Both draws are ours rather than the event’s, and both are completely free to enter. You do not need to buy anything to take part in either one.

The online draw

Three bottles of Lyme Bay English wine, picked from what we are pouring at Burghley, going to one winner. Entering is simple. Sign up below for our news and offers, either before you visit or by scanning the QR code at Stand F2 while you are with us, and you will be entered automatically.

You do not need to be at the stand when the draw takes place. As the winner is announced after the event has finished, we will contact them directly and post the three bottles to their door.

Entries close at the end of the event, on Sunday 6 September, and we will announce the winner on Monday 7 September.

The daily draw at the stand

Another three bottles, and this one runs every day we are there. Four days, four winners. Come and find us at Stand F2, write your name on a card and pop it in the box. Entry is free, and there is nothing more to it than that.

We draw at 4.30pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and at 1pm on the Sunday so that nobody has to choose between us and the showjumping. Times go up on the stand each morning, and we will shift them if the day is running differently.

The one catch is that you do need to be with us when we pull the name out. If the winner has wandered off somewhere, we simply draw again. So have a taste in the morning, pop your name in the box, and come back and see us before the end of the day.

Making a day of it

Burghley turns 65 this year. It has been running in the parkland around Burghley House since 1961, when the Marquess of Exeter offered his estate at short notice after another event fell through. It is now one of only seven CCI5* events in the world and one of only two in the UK. Early September in Capability Brown parkland, with the house sitting above the cross-country course and the shopping avenues busy from breakfast onwards. It is a good place to spend a day, and a very good place to drink English wine.

Each day has a character of its own, which is worth knowing when you are working out when to come. Thursday and Friday are the dressage days, and they are the gentler, more sociable end of the week. There are masterclasses in the Main Arena, more room to wander, and the shopping is at its most relaxed. If you would like to taste properly and have a proper chat with us, these are your days.

Saturday is cross-country, and it is why most people come. The whole showground drifts out towards the course from late morning and stays there. If you are shopping on the Saturday, get it done early or leave it until mid-afternoon when everybody wanders back.

Sunday brings the final horse inspection, the showjumping finale and prize giving at 3.40pm. Our draw is at 1pm so that nobody has to choose between us and the main event.

The official charity for 2026 is World Horse Welfare. Full timings, tickets and visitor information are on the Defender Burghley Horse Trials website.

Who we are, briefly

We have been making wine in East Devon for over thirty years. We started out with fruit wines, meads and liqueurs, and came to English grape wines more recently, working with growers across the south of England who know their own patches of land better than anybody. That approach has made us the most awarded English still wine producer in the country. We would much rather show you than tell you about it, which is rather the point of loading six bottles into a van and driving them to Lincolnshire.

If you cannot make it to Burghley, our Cellar Door in Devon is open Tuesday to Saturday for tastings, and it is where most Lyme Bay Winery events happen across the year. The Jurassic Coast is close enough to make a proper day of that too.

See you at Stand F2

Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 September, Stand F2 on the Food Walk. Come and find us, have a taste, and put your name in the box while you are there. Keep up to date with Lyme Bay Winery

Don’t miss out on news and updates from us. Sign up to our newsletter and be the first to receive exclusive offers and discounts on our products. Please drink responsibly.