Try to imagine each & every restaurant in the USA has a set benchmark for wine lists that comprise of wines of superior quality, pair perfectly with their cuisines, along-with great value-for-money.  

How about we change that imagination to reality? We are looking 5 years into the future, by when every restaurant across the US will have the Sommeliers Choice Awards prescribed wine list, ready to serve, and ready to enjoy. Wine restaurant buyers and operators who might not be able to afford elite sommeliers, will have a benchmark that they can also refer to!

A bit of context first, though. Our story began when our CEO, Mr. Sid Patel came across this quote online "Don't just set benchmarks, Be the BENCHMARK"!

He was inspired to bring the on-premise wine experience to the next level. And that is not a day's job. He has had his own wine brand which performed miracles in the retail sector a few years ago (you can read about it here), but then a question struck him, "What are the restaurant buyers looking for?"

Back in 2018, Beverage Trade Network did a market research of the hospitality industry by surveying a pool of over 2000+ sommeliers, master sommeliers, and on-premise wine buyers in the US region. Their objective was simple: what do sommeliers look for, while buying new additions to their wine lists? What is it that makes a sommelier go: “Oh, I want my customers to try this!”, or, “Hey! This would go perfectly with our restaurant’s French cuisine”.

After a lot of back and forth, some cross-country touring, online and offline interviews, and very careful analysis of the survey responses, our team came to the conclusion that it all boils down to 2 questions that a Sommelier asks themselves before purchasing for their wine list.

1. Will the consumer buy the 2nd glass?
2. Would we stock this?

And that’s all that we needed to know to come up with our unique judging process that is tailored to the restaurant purchase process and to facilitate our sommeliers and wine buyers across the nation.

A lot of times, consumers are confused as to which wine they want to drink. They often ask for a 95-point wine, and with the plethora of wine ratings around the world, it is quite easy to get lost in the world of 95-point wines.

So Beverage Trade Network decided to come up with a benchmark that would aid you (if you’re a restaurant/on-premise wine buyer, or a sommelier looking to create the perfect wine list for your audience).

Enter *drumroll* “Sommeliers Choice Awards”. This competition has 1 true purpose. To give a clear idea to restaurateurs on which wine will bridge the gap in their current portfolio based on 5 crucial factors, Food Parability, Typicity, Quality, Value-for-money, and Packaging.

Hence started the process of communicating our goal to the industry, and we were not surprised by the more than warm welcome that the on-premise industry gave us in our first year itself.

The 2019 edition of the Sommeliers Choice Awards brought an absolutely unprecedented number of participants. But thanks to the judges of the competition and the judging process set by Beverage Trade Network, the first edition was nothing short of absolute success.

Sommeliers Choice Awards 2019 wine brands from across the world competed for a spot on the Top 100 On-Premise Wines buying guide.

Wine brands from the United States, Australia, Germany, Austria, Spain, New Zealand, France, Italy, South Africa, Chile, Argentina, and many more nations were brought together under one single canopy. These were then judged by some of the topmost Head Sommeliers, Master Sommeliers, Wine Buyers and Wine Directors of the biggest known hospitality chains in the USA.

Over a thousand different wines were tasted by the review panel at the 2019 event. This just shows you the level of competition that stands in line with your wine brand. All of them competing to get in the leading national restaurant wine lists.

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Remember when we said that we aim to create a benchmark for how the on-premise buyers are compiling their wine lists? Well, we have compiled last year’s results into a buying guide called the Top 100 On-Premise Wines list.

The first 100 winners at the Sommeliers Choice Awards are listed down in order of the cumulative score that each winner achieved on the 5 judging parameters, that are:

1. Quality

2. Food Parability

3. Packaging

4. Typicity

5. Price (Value for money)

By now you’re obviously wondering what exactly is the procedure of judging and those little details. Well, let us walk you through the process here:

Each wine at the Sommeliers Choice Awards will:

1. Initially be tasted blind to determine its quality, food parability and typicity. Judges will write down the price based on their assessment to late evaluate the value score.

2. Judges will then determine the package and value score of the wine once they are revealed with actual price and shown the package. The package will be judged for the on-premise considering factors like label design and information, closure, and overall look.

3. The judges can discuss the wine as a whole to help allocate scores in the five judging areas however each judge will give the wine its own score and the average will be taken as the final score.

4. Judges will also mark 'By The Glass if they think the wine is a good fit for By The Glass.

5. Food parability and quality will get more weight for their scores.

Let us shed some more light on each of the aspects and parameters for you.

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.

1. Double Gold – 96 points and above
2. Gold – 90-95 points
3. Silver – 80-89 points
4. Bronze – 70-79 points

That covers our journey till now. You ask what’s ahead?

We have huge plans ahead. For our 3rd and 4th year, we at the Sommeliers Choice Awards are planning to map out our reach to the end consumers as well.

With our customized and highly valuable Top 100 On-premise wines list circulating throughout the USA, we are planning to make even more noise that is bound to grab the attention of each and every wine drinker out there.

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Sommeliers Choice Awards gathers the top restaurant wine buyers, Master Sommeliers, wine directors who have a direct influence on the US on-premise market.

Put your wines in front of them and get rated by Food Parability, Typicity, Value, Quality, and Package.

If you're looking to get in front of the top sommeliers and on-premise wine buyers of the USA, now is the best time to enter your wines. Save up to $55 per wine.

SCA Entry Process & Fees

Deadline For Submission Is Approaching Fast.

Leading wine brands from around the world now have an opportunity to grow their business and gain the attention of wine buyers, wine directors and influencers within the U.S. on-premise industry. Time to submit your wines in the 2020 Sommeliers Choice Awards.