Top level judges that each have direct buying responsibilities in their roles will come together to taste their way through and judge the USA Wine Ratings. Each panel of USA Wine Ratings will include a judge who is a Master of Wine. These are key individuals in the USA wine industry that collectively have the buying power to list wines from all over the world that are entering the competition. They are buyers with the experience of assessing wines on their quality, their value for money proposition and how that is demonstrated through their packaging and design – the three key judging criteria.

The 2021 event will take place on July 26, 2021 in San Francisco where wines from the world over will be reviewed on quality, package and value. Entrants will not only get the score breakdown as valuable feedback, the organizer Beverage Trade Network has also rolled out a feature that entrants will find extremely useful.  They can download ready-to-print shelf talkers with tasting notes from the entry zones for no extra charge. Shelf talkers are a key component in aiding a consumer to know a bottle better and pick it up to buy. 

BOB PAULINSKI MW Master of Wine

The super early bird entry for the 2021 USA Wine Ratings is open until February 10, 2021. 

The Judging

Eric C. Sigmund, Esq., CS, CSW, Total Wines and More wine buyer judging

Judges are asked to give scores to the wines based on key criteria with a weighting system in place to ensure quality wines come to the top.

The awards are broken down like this:

Q (Quality Score) + Value Score (V) + Package Score (P) = USA Wine Ratings Score.

A separate weighted score is given for each of the three parts of the judging process (Quality gets twice the weight. The scores are calculated with other judges for the same product on the team to give a final score from which individual prizes will be awarded.)

Quality score: marked out of 100

Value score: marked out of 100

Packaging score: marked out of 100

Entries open for 2021 competition

USA Wine Ratings 2021 is now accepting entries and anyone looking to enter can take advantage of the super early bird pricing  – up to February 10, 2021 – that allows you to save $40 per entry.

All wines entered into the competition will be assessed and judged by a leading panel of top-level wine buyers with current direct commercial buying responsibility. The panel will include wine consultants and experts who are also directly involved in the development of new wine brands or buying wine for commercial resale.

Wines are judged blind for their quality. Then packaging is revealed for the score on packaging and value.

These are buying experts that are judging and assessing wines every day in their working lives and are therefore ideally placed to pick out the winning wines for the 2021 competition. They are also ensuring any wine that receives a gold, silver or bronze medal will work on any on-trade wine list and help outlets sell more wine and attract more customers.

Here are the key details for the entry process for the 2021 competition.

Key Dates:

Super Early Bird Deadline: February 10, 2021

Early Bird Deadline: April 30, 2021

Final Deadline: June 30, 2021

Warehouse Deadline: July 5, 2021

Judging: July 26, 2021

Winners Announcement: August 10, 2021

Fee Schedule:

Super Early Bird Pricing - $80 (ends on February 10, 2021)

Early Bird Pricing - $100 (February 11, 2021, to April 30, 2021)

Regular Pricing - $120 per wine (May 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021)

Enter this year’s awards