Walgate Wines

Taproom open Thursday to Sunday; closed Monday to Wednesday.

Opening hours can change for private events - it's always worth checking the vineyard's website before you visit.

What's the vibe?

Walgate Wines is Ben Walgate's winery in a big, open warehouse at Rock Channel in Rye, which doubles as a bar from Thursday to Sunday. Ben left Tillingham to start out on his own in 2023, and the wines here are made in a low-intervention way but with a more conventional approach than his earlier work.

There is no vineyard attached. The grapes are bought from growers across the south-east and East Anglia and made into wine on site, so this is a place to drink what Ben has made rather than walk the vines.

Taproom: The bar pours Walgate wines on Thursdays from 5pm to 10pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 12pm to 10pm, and Sundays from 12pm to 7pm. It is closed Monday to Wednesday.

Buying bottles: The full range can be ordered through the Walgate online shop.

Walgate's name rests on its Rosé 2023, a 100% Pinot Meunier from clay soils in the Crouch Valley in Essex. Whole bunches spend a night macerating in the press before going to stainless steel, and the result is raspberry, melon and a creamy roundness over tingling acidity. It won the Best Still Rosé trophy at WineGB 2026, where the judges called it "elegant, gastronomic and richly structured". The 2023 Chardonnay took gold at the same awards.

The range is mostly still wines. Alongside the rosé there is a Pinot Noir 2023 (£38), a Chardonnay 2023 (£38), a floral Pinot Blanc 2023 (£37) and Cuvée T, a darker red blended from Pinot Meunier, Cabaret Noir and Pinot Noir (£48). For a cheaper way in, W Rosato 2022 (a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blend) and W Blanc 2023 (Ortega and Auxerrois grown in Suffolk) are £17 each.

Sparkling comes in three styles: the Classic Cuvée 2022 (£50), aged 28 months on its lees; a Rosé Traditional Method 2022 (£45) from Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir; and Colfondo NV (£27), a cloudy, unfiltered fizz refermented in the bottle.

Book train tickets in advance via Trainline.

Rye is a short walk from the winery, and three other vineyards are within a few miles:

• Other Vineyards:
  • Tillingham Vineyard (Peasmarsh)
  • Charles Palmer Vineyards (Winchelsea)
  • Oxney Organic Estate (Rye)

Walgate belongs to a small group of English wineries that make wine without owning vines. The fruit is bought from named growers and driven to the winery, which lets Ben pick the best site for each grape: Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir from clay in the Crouch Valley, Chardonnay from chalk downland, Ortega and Auxerrois from Suffolk. London has several more of the same, including Blackbook, which also buys fruit from Essex.