8th EDITION

24 & 25 MARCH

2025

St. Mary's
LONDON

Judging Process for the London Wine Competition

The London Wine Competition is designed to recognize and reward wines that are not only high in quality but also deliver value and packaging that appeal to wine consumers. To ensure a fair and transparent judging process, the competition evaluates entries across three key criteria:

SCORING SYSTEM

Q (Quality Score), Value Score (V), and Package Score (P) are used to calculate the London Wine Competition score.

A separate weighted score will be given for each of the three parts of the judging process. Quality gets twice the weight. The average is calculated to come to the final score per judge for each product. That score is then averaged with other judges who tasted the same product.

Quality Score: will be marked out of 100

Value Score: will be marked out of 100

Package Score: will be marked out of 100

DEFINITIONS

Quality: Quality will be assessed based on how agreeable the wine is to its target customer and chemical analysis. Measure quality considering the following characteristics of the beverage: Appearance, Aroma, Body, Taste, and Aftertaste.

Value: The objective is to understand how well a particular wine is priced, the greater the quality offered for the price, the greater the value score will be.

Packaging: Packaging will be measured by how well judges think the wine will be perceived by the consumer. The package will be judged for the Off-Premise market considering factors like label design and information, closure, and overall look. This does not involve boxes, cartons, and bags. It is how they think the product will be perceived when placed on a wine shelf amongst thousands of other wines.

HOW MEDALS WORK

Medals are awarded based on the average score calculated from the panel of judges. The updated thresholds for medals and recognition are as follows:

Gold: 95–100 – Excellent
Wines in this category are exceptional in every aspect, offering unparalleled quality, remarkable value, and outstanding packaging. They are benchmarks of excellence in the wine industry.

Silver: 90–94 – Accomplished
Wines that display superior quality, strong consumer appeal, and thoughtful packaging. These wines represent a high standard and a rewarding experience for buyers.

Bronze: 85–89 – Well Made
Wines that are well-crafted, reliable, and enjoyable. They meet the expectations of quality, value and package but may lack the exceptional edge required for higher medals.

No Medal: 80–84 – Acceptable and Simple
Wines in this range are palatable and straightforward but lack the depth and complexity to stand out in competitive markets.

No Medal: 75–79 – Palatable but Lacks Character
Wines that are drinkable but fail to deliver the balance, typicity, or structure needed to merit a medal.

BLIND TASTING AND PACKAGING SCORE

Quality and Value scores are given with blind tasting. Judges will see the packaging bottles once the quality and value scores are entered for the products during each flights.

MARKET FEEDBACK

Entrants will now get feedback from the judges on a) if the product is suited for on-trade or off-trade or both b) if the product category or product country is in demand in UK or not.

Important: Please note that the updated medal awarding system will be implemented starting with the 2025 competition. Previous years utilized a different scoring and medal allocation system, which is why you may notice variations in score ranges. Moving forward, the London Wine Competition will adopt the new criteria outlined above to better reflect industry standards and consumer expectations.