The Buyer | Last days to enter London Wine, Beer & Spirits Competitions

To enter the London Wine Competition click here, for London Beer it is here and for London Spirits click here.

Each year the three separate London Drinks Competition attract new entries as producers, brand owners and distributors alike recognise the impact the medal winners have both in the trade and then directly with the consumer.

Organised by the Beverage Trade Network these are awards that go the extra mile to constantly promote and publicise the awards to consumers through a series of websites, digital platforms and social media.

There is the London Drinks Guide which is aimed at drinks enthusiasts who are interested in finding out more about the brands and products they like, the people behind them, how they are made and also profiles and interviews with the venues that sell them.

The London Drinks Guide is supported by similar guides in other major cities across the world, giving global brands the chance to talk about their products to consumers in all their key markets.

The Beverage Trade Network has also recently launched two B2B websites aimed at promoting the awards to operators, suppliers and buyers in the UK on and off-trades with The Ontrade.com and DrinksMerchants.com.

The reason the London Drinks Competitions is so keen to promote its finalists and winners to the public is that it knows that the vital last step that so many drinks awards don’t take. Winning a medial is great, but being able to talk about it and explain what that means to the consumer most likely to buy it is an invaluable last step.

Sid Patel, chief executive of the Beverage Trade Network, says: “We have spent a lot of time taking to the drinks companies that enter our separate competitions to understand what more we can do for them. Time and again they want to understand how we are going to help them promote their medals to their target audiences. That’s why we are constantly looking at new ways to do that.”

The Judges

Some of the judges in the 2022 competition

The judges for the 2022 awards all have one thing in common. They are all directly involved in the buying and selling of wine and in the commercial end of the wine trade. They have the know-how and skills to be able to taste through 100s of wine and pick out the medal winners.

This year’s list of judges is drawn from an elite list of outlets including Annabel’s, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, The Ritz, Berry Bros & Rudd, Zuma, Goodman, Gordon Ramsay Group, 67 Pall Mall, The Birley Clubs, Caprice Holdings, Enotria&Coe, Petersham Nurseries, Handford Wines, Hide and D&D London. Ensuring there is a wide spread of judges with different tasting and buying experiences.

Judging Process

Some of the judges that have taken part in the London Wine Competition

The London Drinks Competitions start the judging process by assessing each product blind to determine if it is worthy of a medal. The judges are then asked to use their commercial buying skills to assess the wines on the price and value for money and then what they look. How likely are customers likely to pick it off the shelf and buy it? Does the way it look live up to the quality and price positioning of the wines.

Scores are then allocated for each of the three criteria and the most appropriate medal rewarded.Wines are judged on a 100-point scale. With different scores out of 100 given by each judge for its quality, value and packaging.

Gold medals are given for wines scoring 90 to 100 points.
Silver for scoring 76-89 points.
Bronze for 65-75 points.

Key Dates

Registration Ends – February 28, 2022
Warehouse Closes: March 4, 2022
Judging Date: March 21 & 22, 2022
Winners Announced: April 5, 2022