How the London Wine Competition is Reaching Consumers

The London Wine Competition goes into its 4th year stronger than ever on the back of record entries for the 2020 awards and a new dedicated website, The London Drinks Guide, that has been launched to help promote and tell the stories of the wineries, producers and wines that come out top in the competition. For winning a medal is one thing, getting the chance to promote it directly to consumers is the real point of difference.

Here’s how you can enter the London Wine Competition before the deadline of February 22, 2021.

For any drinks competition to offer an advantage to producers, brand owners and distributors it is looking to work with, the organisers have to listen to what brands want and act on it.

That’s what the founders and organisers of the London Wine Competition, the Beverage Trade Network, have done. They have discussed at length with both the wineries about what sorts of wines they should be entering, and the judges tasked with assessing them, what it is they would like to see the awards do better.

It’s why the competition has taken a major step forward in driving a direct-to-consumer strategy for how it promotes the winning wines and producers. By launching the London Drinks Guide, the competition now has a platform to really help producers talk directly to wine enthusiasts who are interested in understanding more about how their wines are made, their stories and their award-winning wines. 

It also gives a chance to the judges, most of whom are sommeliers, master sommeliers and wine buyers working in many of London’s top bars and restaurants, to share their stories and be featured on The London Drinks Guide to explain the kinds of wines they sell in their outlets and why.

Some of the sommeliers who help judge the London Wine Competition are profiled on the London Drinks Guide

Sid Patel, who heads up the Beverage Trade Network and the London Competitions told The Buyer: “We pride ourselves on how close we are to wineries, producers, importers and distributors that are the heart of the drinks industry. We launched the London Competition to give them an awards platform that tasted and judged wines, beers and spirits in the same way that consumers do. How they taste, what their overall quality is like, how much they cost, and what they look like on the retail shelf. 

That’s what makes the London Wine Competition, for example, different from all the other global wine awards. We go way beyond just the quality of the wine. It has to be at a price and have the look and feel that reflects that quality to win a medal.”

The entry process for the 2021 London Wine Competition is now open and will be closing soon. Brands looking to grow in 2021 via London competitions must enter by February 22, 2021.

All wines entered into the competition will be assessed and judged by a leading panel of top-level wine buyers with current direct commercial buying responsibility. The panel also includes wine consultants and experts who are also directly involved in the development of new wine brands or buying wine for commercial resale.

These are the buying experts that are judging and assessing wines every day in their working lives and are therefore ideally placed to pick out the winning wines for the 2021 competition.

They ensure that any wine that receives a gold, silver or bronze medal will work on any on-trade wine list and help outlets sell more wine and attract more customers.

Greg Sherwood MW of Handford Wines judging at the London Wine Competition

Here are the key details for the entry process for the 2021 competition

Key Dates:

Registration ends for entries: February 22, 2021

Warehouse closes for entries: February 26, 2021

Judging date: March 15, 2021

Winners announced: March 30, 2021

 Participate in the 2021 London Wine Competition

That’s why the London Wine Competition looks to only have judges, many of whom are Masters of Wine or Master Sommeliers, with direct buying responsibility or those who have had the vital experience of making the tough commercial decisions that decide what is listed or not.

For the 2021 awards the strong panel of judges consists of the following leading names amongst others:

The Judges

The judges for 2021 London Wine Competition are –

Christopher Delalonde M.S., Head of Wines at The Dorchester Hotel (in picture).

Simon Field MW, wine consultant who was wine buyer for Berry Bros & Rudd for 10 years up to 2018.

David Round MW, wine buying consultant, with Round About Wine who has experience of working at Jascots Wine Merchants and Bancroft Wines.

Svetoslav Manolev MS, head sommelier and wine buyer at Flemings Mayfair Hotel who used to be a sommelier at 67 Pall Mall.

Barbara Drew MW, events manager at Berry Bros & Rudd.

Anne Jones, BWS category manager at Waitrose.

Tim Tiptree MW, international director at Christie’s.

Demetri Walters MW, wine consultant and also formerly of Berry Bros & Rudd.

Matteo Montone MS, Master Sommelier, World best young sommelier 2019 Chaine de Rôtisseurs, Wine Director at Edition, London

Greg Sherwood MW, Senior Wine Buyer at Handford Wines

Kathrine Larsen MS, UK Sommelier of the Year 2014 [...] View all judges

Meet Our Judges

Judging Procedure

The London Wine Competition has three, highly effective and different judging criteria to set them apart from the majority of other international wine events:

• Initially all wines are tasted blind to determine its quality. Where appropriate they will also be assessed by variety, style, region, and country.
• Judges will then be given a briefing document setting out the wine’s price and target consumer and trade channel where it wants to be sold. Only then will judges be asked to give their score for quality based on the initial blind tasting and then additional knowledge about the wine’s price and market position.
• The judges will then be handed the bottle or format for them to be able to assess, in detail, the design, label, and packaging and determine how well that matches up to, or complements the quality of the wine and its price point.
• The judges will then discuss the wine as a whole to help allocate scores in the three judging areas.
• The Gold winning wines and all special category spirits will be re-tasted by the wine judges on the re-judging day to ensure the scoring quality.

Judging dates

Judging will take place on March 15, 2021, at a central London venue. To be considered in the competition all products must be in the warehouse by February 26, 2021.

Key Dates:

Please check our KEY DEADLINES AND PRICING for the key dates.

Fee Schedule:

Please check our KEY DEADLINES AND PRICING for the fee schedule.

Enter your wine brand today and grow your brand in 2021.

Here’s how you can enter the London Wine Competition before the deadline of February 22, 2021.

Quantity Discount Now Available

4 to 9 entries: 10% discount

10 to 14 entries: 15% discount

15 or more entries: 20% discount

Understand The Scoring System

Submit Wines

Learn More

Note: Last Few Days Left To Register for the London Wine Competition.

 Registration Ends – February 22, 2021.

Benefits Of Winning An LWC Medal