Launched in 2016 and held annually, the Independent English Wine Awards is a wine competition whose purpose is to award, promote and celebrate the best of English wine. Based in Bristol and the only competition of its type, the IEWA is a consumer focussed, wholly independent wine competition. The real story is English wine, but you can read a little more about our story here if you’re so inclined.

Good question. The why enter list we’ve put together makes a good case, but in general terms, we set out to create a credible, engaging, consumer focussed English wine competition, which would break free of the traditional wine comp perception; ‘expensive and not always that helpful, even when you win a medal’. We’ve come a long way in a short time, but this is a longer-term project and we’ll have fun on this journey. Join us!

Wine competitions tend to follow a similar format; behind closed-doors blind tasting and scoring, usually out of 100, by serious looking people who you’d imagine know what they’re talking about. But not only are our diverse and accomplished judges not particularly sombre looking, we consciously make more effort than others to draw attention to medal wins, through our website, PR efforts and innovative social media marketing activity.

We’re referring to the fact that the IEWA is not owned by or affiliated to a larger company or organisation. That’s really important to the credibility of our message. Objectivity is so important if any message is to be taken seriously, particularly in this climate of ‘fake news’ and skepticism: The IEWA is proudly free from conflict, compromise or influence. Indeed, we’re proud ‘outsiders’. Our independence is a really important part of our story.

Chaired once again in 2021 by Liam Steevenson MW, our panel of carefully selected judges is credible, professionally diverse and offers as close to 360° insight as we could achieve. We mix it up a little each year, but you can view the full line-up of all our past judging panels here.

Participation in our English wine competition is £85.00 per entry (no VAT payable) if you enter before Wednesday 12th May (12/05). After that ‘early bird’ has ended, entry is £100 per wine (no VAT). In the event that all goes well and your wine secures a medal, the only other cost would be for medal stickers to adhere to your bottles. These are £30.00 per roll of 1000. All the other marketing materials, like the pro bottle photos and ‘gifs’, and involvement in any other marketing activity, like our ‘Instagram takeovers’, or live interviews, is included in the entry fee.

Entry into the IEWA requires 3 bottled samples of each entry, which must be fully finished in final container, with the final seal, having already gained the entitlement to use and display the terms ‘English’, ‘wine’ and ‘English Wine’. Full details can be found on our terms and conditions page, although that does go on a little. Wine samples should to be sent to our registered address: The IEWA Ltd. c/o Mr Ryan Stott Doric House, Doulting, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 4QE.

Judging for IEWA21 will take place on Saturday 4th September, and the deadline for entering is Monday 12th July (12/07). And the deadline for getting samples to us is Thursday 12th August (12/08). Our key dates page contains all the milestones to be aware of in advance of the competition.

You can enter a wine into the Independent English Wine Awards by heading to our registration page to download an editable PDF entry form, to be returned to us via email, or post if preferred. The page also features a payment portal, or you can simply settle up by BACS bank transfer.

Yes. We are able to offer producers in this category a 50% reduction on the cost of our entry fee and medal stickers. The entry fee comes down to £35.00 per wine, and a roll of 1000 medal stickers drops to £15.00. We take the opinion that provided judging is completely fair and ensures anonymity and parity, then it is acceptable to make it easier for this category of producer – social enterprises and centres of higher education – to enter the IEWA.