The drinks industry has more than enough options to put your wine, beer or spirits up to the test, but the London Wine Competition believes it has a different concept that judges wine in the same way that consumers do: how easy and likeable is it to drink, does it offer value for money, and does it look nice.

Arguably one of the wine industry’s biggest achilles heels is that there is simply too much wine out there all doing the same thing, trying to appeal to a mass consumer with no specific agenda. How do those kinds of wines stand out from the pack?

But there is also increasingly a number of wines that do have very specific customers and consumers in mind and are made to appeal directly to their needs. Which means making sure the wine tastes right, is marketed at the right price, but crucially also has the right look and feel to encourage those consumers to pick the wine up and be pleased to drink it. The triple whammy effect.

Those are the wines destined to do well in the new London Wine Competition that has been devised by the US online drinks business marketing and networking platform, Beverage Trade Network.

Winning wines will receive either a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal

The competition has been set up to directly appeal to the end consumer as it hopes to award those wines that are doing the most to engage with customers be it in restaurants, casual dining chains, pubs or retailers.

Judges will also be brought in from across all channels of the sector to include buyers who are actively making decisions every day based on the same judging criteria.

Wines will be scored out of 100 with different weighting given to each of the three criteria as follows:

• Quality Score: will be marked out of 50
• Value Score: will be marked out of 25
• Package Score: will be marked out of 25

Early bird rates

Entries to the competition formally start on November 1, but producers, importers, retailers, and operators can take advantage of a special “Pre-Registration Entry” offer up to October 31, 2017. Those that do can take advantage of a £75 per entry rate, compared to £95 from those entering after  November 1 or
£125 from February 1, 2018, and £145 for those entering after February 15, 2018. The final date for entries is February 20 with the formal judging taking place in central London on March 8. 

Source: The-buyer