The new London Wine Competition promises to assess wines in three key ways: for their drinkability, their value for money and what they look with their packaging and design. Yes, wines will still initially be tasted blind, but then the judges will be asked to consider the wine’s full offer from price point through to how it looks. Those willing to back the new awards are being offered a number of incentives and rewards.

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 like able 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 kind 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.

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

Pre-registration rates
Entries to the competition formally start on November 16, but producers, importers, retailers, and operators can take advantage of a special “Pre-Registration Entry” offer up to November 16, 2017.

Those that do can take advantage of a £75 per entry rate, compared to £95 from those entering after November 15 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. Anyone who enters before November 15 will also receive the following benefits:

1 Your winery profile and interview on London Wine Competition blog.
2 Social media by LWC all year round about your winery.
3 20% discount on the early bird rates as a pre-registrant.
4 One editorial news release to go on BTN and BevRoute Magazine.
5 LWC feedback on the wines you enter.

To take advantage of the pre-registration offer, enter your details here before November 15, 2017 and LWC representatives will send you the special pricing form.

Source of the article – The-Buyer.net (UK)