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Winelovers Wine Awards open for Central & East European wines

Winelovers Wine Awards open for Central & East European wines

The 2024 edition of the Winelovers Wine Awards, which aims to be the most important wine awards for Central and Eastern European wines, is now open for entries ahead of judging which will take place in Budapest between June 28-30 2024. Here we set out how to apply, how the awards are judged and how the Winelovers Wine Awards also wants to be a platform to help bring together producers from Central and Eastern Europe with key buyers from target wine markets around the world.


Richard Siddle
30th March 2024by Richard Siddle
posted in Awards,

The Winelovers Wine Awards is a great opportunity for producers and wineries across Central and Eastern Europe to shine the light on the quality of wines they are producing and help promote them to potential buyers around the world.

Entries for the Winelovers Wine Awards 2024 are now open, and producers can enter the competition in any of its eight main categories via the competition website.

The medals and scores in the Winelovers Wine Awards

The awards has also been designed to help wineries export and market their wines as it supported by an extensive communication programme from its and international publicity through its organisers, Hungary-based Trinety Media.

In addition to the English-language website and the competition’s social media pages, the winning wines will also be featured on the Wine-Searcher website and through press releases to the international wine press and through an English-language digital publication distributed to most important players in the Western European wine market.

More and more ancillary events are being added to the awards programme every year in a bid to help wineries find their feet in their target export and markets and help them use the Winelovers Awards to connect winemakers with wine merchants, retailers and distributors looking for new products fro Central and Eastern Europe and help them build effective relationships.

The Winelovers Wines Awards are judged by leading Masters of Wine and experts in Central and East European wines like Caroline Gilby MW

Producers can take advantage of a 'Tasting break' sponsorship package which allows them to present their wines and themselves during the judging breaks on competition days. There is also the chance to 'Taste with an expert', where a world-renowned wine expert will review three wines from each participating winery.

The three days of judging will also feature a number of high-quality masterclasses presented by some of the judges taking part in the competition including Masters of Wine and world-renown experts in Central and Eastern European wines.

Producers and winemakers will also have the chance to meet leading wine figures from around the world taking part in the judging during a Gala Dinner.

As well as the medals awarded in each of the main eight categories there will also be special prizes presented which include:

Best of Country: if there are at least 10 samples from one country, the wine with the highest number of points and at least a gold medal will be awarded a special prize.

Best of Grape Variety: if at least 10 samples of a given variety are received, the wine with the highest score within the variety and at least a gold medal will receive a special prize.

Best of Indigenous Grape Variety: the wine made from either white or black grapes with the highest score among the autochthonous grape varieties entered in the competition.

Winery of the Year sponsored by Halimba Crystal: for the winery with the most gold and grand gold medals won in the competition.

Entry deadline: 18 June

Note: not only the entry forms but also the wine samples must arrive by this date. Wines arriving after the deadline may not participate in the contest.

Judging: June 28-30.

Masterclasses and exclusive tastings: June 28-29.

Winelovers Expo: June 29. This expo showcases all wines entered in the contest, enabling jury members to "meet" the brands, to check which wines they appreciated best during the judging process and to select the winners of the Best of Packaging award.

Results published: July 22. WWA results will be published on its website and on The Buyer.

Online brochure sent to importers & trade: September 12. The grand gold, gold and special award winners will be featured in the digital publication of the contest distributed to at least 4000 international opinion leaders.

Winelovers 100 Grand Tasting: September 14. Most of the 100 top rated Hungarian wines can be tasted at an event at the exclusive Corinthia Hotel Budapest.

* To find out more and enter the awards click here.

* You can find videos of the 2023 event and interviews with the judges on the competition’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@wineloverswineawards2928

* The rules of the Winelovers Wine Awards can be downloaded here.