America's Top Sommeliers And Restaurant Buyers To Review & Assess Your Wines
The goal of the Sommeliers Choice Awards is to provide on-premise buyers and sommeliers a valuable benchmark for understanding which wines would make a compelling addition to a wine list.
The judging panel of the Sommeliers Choice Awards will consist entirely of top sommeliers, on-premise wine buyers and wine directors at U.S. restaurants, bars, pubs, and clubs. Sommeliers Choice Awards was first introduced in 2018 with the aim to benchmark the on-premise wine list and be a valuable tool for the on-premise buyers and sommeliers to add new wines. The competition prides itself on its unique value offering that it gives wine brands around the world for the American on-premise market.
Sommeliers Choice Awards provides independent and honest reviews of all wines entered into the competition, based on several key criteria, such as Food Parability, Typicity, Quality, Value and Package. All the wines are scored on a 100-point scale, and the highest-scoring spirits receive Double Gold, Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. A separate weighted score will be given for each of the parts of the judging process.
How The Scoring System Works
The top two questions that sommeliers will be attempting to answer as they judge wines is: “Would we stock this?” and "Will the consumer buy the 2nd glass".
F (Food Parability Score) + T (Typicity Score) + Q (Quality Score) + Value Score (V) + Package Score (P) = Sommeliers Choice Awards Final Score.
Food parability:
Food Parability of a wine is measured based on the variety of dishes that wine can be paired with instead of just one or two.
Typicity:
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, e.g., how much a Merlot wine “tastes like a Merlot”. It is an important component in judging wine competition when wines of the same variety are judged against each other.
Quality:
Quality will be assessed based on how agreeable the wine is for its target customer and chemical analysis. SCA will measure quality by Appearance, Aroma, Body, Taste and Aftertaste.
Value:
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:
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 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.
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.
Wines are also scored for the glass during the judging process which allows restaurant wine buyers and sommeliers to have a clear distinction of the top wines by the bottle and top wines by the glass to order for their restaurants.
The judges will be entering tasting notes for each wine which will result in a unified tasting note that will be provided by Sommeliers Choice Awards to the entrant in a way a sommelier would talk about the wine to its customer.
Entrants will get score breakdown, tasting notes and shelf talker templates in their zones which will further help wine brands position their message and communicate to end consumers.
Submission Now Open. Enter Your Wines.
Key Dates:
Super Early Bird Offer - Now to November 30, 2021
Warehouse Closes - April 24, 2022
Judging Day - May 16, 2022
Winners Announced - May 31, 2022
Pricing:
Super Early Bird Pricing - $70 per wine (now to November 30, 2021)
Early Bird Pricing - $90 per wine (December 1, 2021, to January 31, 2022)
Regular Pricing - $120 per wine (February 1, 2022, to April 20, 2022)
Shipping Info:
The delivery address to ship samples will be informed by e-mail when the payment is completed.
Please send your samples (3 bottles per entry) to SCA warehouse before April 24, 2022, to the address mentioned in the SCA Label once you login and click on 'My Shipping labels' which shall be attached on the box:
*Official SCA shipping labels MUST BE USED and can be found on the 'My Shipping labels' section of 'My account'. You can download and print your shipping label. Please note that your reference number is on the shipping label and it is very important for SCA team to see your shipping label on your box and one copy inside your box. Clearly, label each box of wine using the shipping label. Official SCA shipping labels MUST be used to send samples.
Goods receiving time: Monday – Friday 9.00 am – 5.00 pm
*Wines that arrives after the deadline date will not be accepted and refunds will not be issued.
Sommelier Choice Awards organized by Beverage Trade Network.
Allwinestories is a member of Beverage Trade Network
