FYI: In case of a @Embeddable class containing enumerated fields which has been referenced via @Embedded(Id) + @Access(AccessType.PROPERTY) member, you must explicitly define field type access on @Embeddable class because otherwise the access type will cascade. At first glance this seemed to me like a case of mixed annotations because my other field level annotations resembled the default ones and only the one @Enumerated(EnumType.STRING) stopped working. I though I'd share this because in this case you won't be getting SQL exceptions (ordinals can be converted to (VAR)CHARs).