The London Wine Competition prides itself on thinking and acting like the consumers that are going to end up buying the wines that win the top awards in the event. It is why from the day it was founded it has constantly been looking to listen and adapt its adage giving producers, suppliers and importers clear and compelling reasons to enter their wines.

To do that you need to have top quality judges that not only know a quality wine when they taste one, but can also recognise their value for money for the part of the market they want to compete in and whether they look and have the right decision and packaging to appeal to wine drinkers.

That’s why the London Wine Competition looks to only have judges, many of whom are Masters of Wine or Master Sommeliers, with direct buying responsibility or those who have had the vital experience of making the tough commercial decisions that decide what is listed or not.

For the 2021 awards the strong panel of judges consists of the following leading names amongst others:

Christopher Delalonde M.S., Head of Wines at The Dorchester Hotel (in picture).

Simon Field MW, wine consultant who was wine buyer for Berry Bros & Rudd for 10 years up to 2018.

David Round MW, wine buying consultant, with Round About Wine who has experience of working at Jascots Wine Merchants and Bancroft Wines.

Svetoslav Manolev MS, head sommelier and wine buyer at Flemings Mayfair Hotel who used to be a sommelier at 67 Pall Mall.

Barbara Drew MW, events manager at Berry Bros & Rudd.

Anne Jones, BWS category manager at Waitrose.

Tim Tiptree MW, international director at Christie’s.

Demetri Walters MW, wine consultant and also formerly of Berry Bros & Rudd.

Matteo Montone MS, Master Sommelier, World best young sommelier 2019 Chaine de Rôtisseurs, Wine Director at Edition, London

Greg Sherwood MW, Senior Wine Buyer at Handford Wines

Kathrine Larsen MS, UK Sommelier of the Year 2014

List of Judges

The judging process

The London Wine Competition has three, highly effective and different judging criteria to set them apart from the majority of other international wine events. Wines are judged in three ways:

 - for their quality

 - for their value for money

 - and for what they look like.

These are the three most crucial factors that determine what wines end up in someone’s supermarket trolley or at their table when eating and drinking out. 

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

Key Dates: 

Judging Date: March 15, 2021 

Winners Announced: April 12, 2021