Choose your Wine Comp: Addendum

Wine competitions: Easy to enter, harder to assess.

On the surface, many look remarkably similar: blind tasting, medals, trophies, logos for websites and bottles. But as my preceding two-part article set out, the differences between competitions - and the value they offer producers - can be significant.

Cost matters, but that’s never the whole story. Judging formats, governance, panels, audience, communication style and even geography all influence whether a medal becomes a meaningful commercial tool or just another line on a sales page. These are exactly the considerations that informed the IEWA trophy structure.

One of the most common producer frustrations is uncertainty. Not about quality - most producers know their wines extremely well - but about impact. Did the medal influence anyone? Did it support a listing, open a door, or prompt a purchase?

Those questions are 100% reasonable. Indeed, I insist that you ask them!

Competitions trade on trust, and trust depends on fairness, transparency and clarity of communication. They’re also the things we continually check ourselves on at the IEWA. How many categories are genuinely useful? How should wines be judged to ensure fairness across styles? How can results be communicated more clearly,m and in more engaging terms, without blurring a message or overwhelming consumers? And how can producers get something tangible back for the time and money they invest?

There’s no perfect system, and no competition will suit every producer. But thoughtful design, transparency and a clear sense of values go a long way.

If nothing else, my hope is that this series encourages producers to be more questioning, more selective, and more confident in asking wine competitions what they actually offer - and then you can better assess whether that aligns with what you’re trying to achieve.

Alex Taylor
Founder, IEWA

‘Good competitions don’t just award wines - they support businesses’