The London Wine Competition looks to assess and reward wines based on how consumers judge them, what they look like, how much they cost, and what they taste like. Now into its third year of competition, the event has proven to be a great platform for producers all over the world. Awards won by brands carry prestige to show not just to the trade, but also to promote their wines directly to customers and consumers.

Here’s how you can enter its 2021 competition and take advantage of early day pricing if you enter by November 30, 2020.

The London Wine Competition is now into its fourth year of competition

As the competition has developed it has also listened to the wineries and suppliers entering and taken steps to really help them then promote whichever wines end up with a medal or trophy at the end of the process. The competition has taken a major initiative in its direct-to-consumer strategy, further improved the quality of its judges and kept to its core values which are for each panel to have a mix of real trade buyers, master sommeliers, and master of wines only.

The 2021 competition is open for entries and anyone looking to enter can take advantage of the early bird pricing that is available until November 30, 2020.

There may be other events, but none like the London Wine Competition, that judge the wines in the same way a consumer does when they are looking to buy wine. Here, wines are judged by what they look like on the shelf, what they cost, and what they taste like. The competition looks at a winning combination of value, quality, and great design. Lots of wines can claim one or two of those qualities, but not many can boast of having all three. The London Wine Competition scores wines on these aspects. The competition’s goal is to make it relevant for the end consumer and to achieve that the 2021 competition has taken the below initiatives.

1. London Drinks Competition (covering wine, beers and spirits) winners will be promoted and stories will be shared on the London Drinks Guide platform to help promote the drinks and producers that win and the venues selling them.
2. London Drinks Competition winners products will also be integrated with BTN’s new direct to consumer platform Get Drinks Delivered for producers and brands looking to grow their direct to consumer sales.
3. More Master of Wine, Master Sommeliers and real trade buyers added to the judging panel.
4. The Top 100 wine list of the best performing wines, spirits and beers in the London Competitions will help give consumers an even bigger steer on what products they should be buying. The list will be promoted on new channels like Whatsapp groups, Telegram with other direct social media channels.
5. Entrants will now get tasting notes, shelf talker templates with tasting notes and scores when the 2021 results are announced.

The shelf talkers will be available in the entrant's zone free of cost.

London Drinks Guide

Entries open for 2021 competition

The entry process for the 2021 London Wine Competition is now open and anyone looking to enter can take advantage now of the early bird pricing package  – up to November 30 – allowing you to save £15 per entry.

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.

 

Details for the entry process for the 2021 competition -

Key Dates:

Early bird ends: November 30, 2020

Registration ends for entries: February 20, 2021

Warehouse closes for entries: February 26, 2021

Judging date: March 15, 2021

Winners announced: March 30, 2021

 

Fee Schedule:

£95 Early Bird: October 1 to November 30, 2020

£110 Regular Entry Fee: December 1 to February 20, 2021

The Judging Process

Greg Sherwood of Handford Wines taking part in the London Wine Competition

Judges are asked to give scores to the wines based on the key criteria with a weighting system in place to ensure quality wines come up top.

The awards are broken down like this:

Q (Quality Score) + Value Score (V) + Package Score (P) = London Wine Competition Score.

A separate weighted score is given for each of the three parts of the judging process (Quality gets twice the weight. The scores are calculated with other judges for the same product on the team to give a final score from which individual prizes will be awarded.)

Quality score: marked out of 100

Value score: marked out of 100

Packaging score: marked out of 100

The competition has recently added 3 new Masters of Wine judges to its panel - Simon Field MW, David Round MW, Barbara Drew MW and 2 Master Sommeliers - Yves Desmaris M.S. and Svetoslav Manolev M.S.

Enter this year’s awards here. (enter before November 30, 2020, to get early bird pricing)