Educating Sommeliers Worldwide.
By Beverage Trade Network
The Sommeliers Choice Awards provides on-premise buyers and sommeliers a valuable benchmark for understanding which wines would make a compelling addition to a wine list.
The wines were judged in five categories: food pairing ability, typicity, quality, value, and packaging. The judges ask themselves, would I stock this wine, and is it good enough for customers to order a second glass? Wines are graded out of 100, with only those above 95 points winning the coveted Double Gold award. There are also category awards, with best in the show given to white, red, sparkling, rosé, and an overall winner every year, by the bottle and by the glass – reflecting how wine is presented in restaurants.
Here are the 5th edition results:
Image: No. 1 Spot: Wine of the Year - Sandeman 50-Year-Old Aged Tawny Port
WINE OF THE YEAR:
WINE OF THE YEAR BTG
WHITE WINE OF THE YEAR
WHITE WINE OF THE YEAR BTG
RED WINE OF THE YEAR
RED WINE OF THE YEAR BTG
SPARKLING WINE OF THE YEAR
SPARKLING WINE OF THE YEAR BTG
ROSE WINE OF THE YEAR
ROSE WINE OF THE YEAR BTG
WINE OF THE YEAR BY VARIETAL:
Image: Mauricio Perez (left), Ankita Okate (centre), Sid Patel (right), Beverage Trade Network, Organizers of Sommeliers Choice Awards
Winners will also be promoted on BTN’s new direct-to-consumer portals Los Angeles Drinks Guide, London Drinks Guide, Chicago Drinks Guide, and New York Drinks Guide along with BTN’s trade portals Sommeliers Business and BevRoute.
The top 100 wines for restaurants will also be marketed to sommeliers around the USA via the top 100 on-premise wines website.
The goal of the Sommeliers Choice Awards is simple: to provide on-premise buyers and sommeliers a valuable benchmark for understanding which wines would make a compelling addition to a wine list.
Image: Sommeliers Choice Awards, Judging Process
Medals will be awarded to those wines that meet very specific judging criteria, with the goal of identifying wines that should become valuable additions to restaurant wine lists. Wines will be judged according to criteria such as how well they pair with food items in addition to their overall versatility. The pertinent questions that sommeliers attempt to answer as they judge wines are: “Would we stock this?” and “Would the customer buy a second glass of this wine?"
F (Food pairing ability Score) + T (Typicity Score) + Q (Quality Score) + Value Score (V) + Package Score (P) = Sommeliers Choice Awards Final Score.
The food pairing ability of a wine is measured based on the variety of dishes that the wine can be paired with instead of just one or two.
Typicity is a term in wine tasting used to describe the degree to which a wine reflects its varietal origins and thus demonstrates the signature characteristics of the grape from which it was produced, for e.g. how much a Merlot “tastes like a Merlot”. It is an important component in judging a wine competition when wines of the same variety are judged against each other.
Quality will be assessed based on how agreeable the wine is to its target customer and chemical analysis. SCA will measure quality by its Appearance, Aroma, Body, Taste and Aftertaste.
Value in this context means how well the wine is priced based on its quality. Judges will blind taste and write what they think should be the cost on which they will buy the wines and is fair. If they think it offers excellent value, the score should be close to 100 and if they think it should be priced lower, then the score should be low. The metric to be used here is the on-premise price vs quality.
Packaging will be measured by how well judges think the wine will be perceived by the consumer. The package will be judged for the on-premise market considering factors like label design, information, closure, and overall look. This does not involve boxes, cartons and bags. It is how they think the product will be observed when placed on a wine shelf amongst thousands of other wines.
A separate weighted score will be given for each of the parts of the judging process. The scores will be added up to give a final score from which individual prizes will be awarded.
Sid Patel | sid@beveragetradenetwork.com | Sommeliers Choice Awards | PH: +1 855 481 1112 (USA)