The Star Wine List of the Year awards, sponsored by Austrian Wine, are judged by a panel of leading sommeliers who have each one prestigious awards, be it in their own country or around the world.
As the world slowly starts to re-open for international travel in the coming months it will be possible to visit and actually enjoy the wine and wine lists celebrated in the Star Wine List of the Year awards rather than just read about them.
But this week’s global ceremony was at least a chance to hear directly from the winners from each of the global categories in an awards programme that has successfully switched online over the last 12 months. To see just what winning an award means to the winning wine directors, sommeliers and their teams, particularly in these days and months of frustration that has left so much of the world’s on-trade closed.
To hear directly from the panel of sommelier judges and just how excited they are in being able to share in the success of the restaurants and bars being awarded. This is what really makes the Star Wine List awards such an important event for the global industry to take notice of. The calibre and expertise of the judging panel is second to none. They include:
Arvid Rosengren, 2016 Best Sommelier of the World
Pascaline Lepeltier, 2018 Best Sommelier of France
Marc Almert, 2019 Best Sommelier of the World
Raimonds Tomsons, 2017 Best Sommelier of Europe
Paz Levinson, Best Sommelier of Argentina and the Americas
Star Wine List was founded four years ago by Krister Bengtsson as a digital platform to help showcase and list the best wine restaurants and bars in key cities around the world. To help producers, importers and distributors identify the key outlets where they need to be focusing their wines on and listen to the teams behind them about what makes a great wine list.
The Wine List Awards take that to the next level to cherry pick the best operators in key cities around the world. Which is why The Buyer was delighted to team up with Star Wine List to host the first UK Wine List of the Year awards in January (Click here for all the results). The global final is the culmination of a year’s work with all the winners from the main international categories in each of the 10 country awards that have taken place across Europe and Asia going through to the International Final held this week.
Star Wine List of the Year International Final
(You can click here to watch the full awards ceremony)
Grand Prix Shortlist
Winner: Palais Coburg – Silvio Nickol, Vienna, Austria
Palais Coburg’s temple to wine in Vienna Austria
Djuret, Stockholm, Sweden
Fitzgerald, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Geranium, Copenhagen, Denmark
Kronenschlösschen, Eltville-Hattenheim, Germany
Les 110 de Taillevent, London, UK
Nobelhart & Schmutzig, Berlin, Germany
Noble Rot, London, UK
Park Hotel Vossevagnen, Voss, Norway
Robuchon au Dôme, Macau
Savoy, Helsinki, Finland
The Chedi Andermatt, Andermatt, Switzerland
Arvid Rosengren was nominated to sum up the judges views as to why Palais Coburg – Silvio Nickol is the best of the best when it comes to its wine range. “Every finalist here is absolutely world class and we should all go and visit them when we can. But the jury was in compete agreement about the winner. The Palais Coburg is a temple of wine which manages to go deep and wide across the world and covers all spectrums of wine and the best it has to offer. But its pricing is also fair and approachable. You get a real wine education at Palais Coburg so congratulations to all the team.”
The winning sommeliers: Wolfgang Kneidinger, head sommelier,and sommelier, Thomas Juranitsch
In response Wolfgang Kneidinger, head sommelier,and sommelier, Thomas Juranitsch said they were blown away to win such a prestigious prize – “we are so happy”. “Our philosophy is to have the best wines from the best regions, at fair prices. Easy.”
They also paid their compliments to the sommelier teams that have come before them and that it takes many years to build up a list like this, layering range upon range and having the time to go and seek out the right wines to fill any gaps. Its cellar now has 60,000 bottles with 5,800 different labels, 5,000 of which are on its current list.
The winning team say that in recent years they have focused more on Austrian whites, Burgundy, German whites and Rhône, and less on Bordeaux. “We think we will continue in this way.”
Its winning approach is also a case, they say, of buying wines at the right time and also how important it is to monitor and explore private cellars in personal homes as that is where “so many treasures” are to be found.
Best Wine List By The Glass – sponsored by Coravin
Winners:
Prism, Berlin, Germany
& Territoriet, Oslo, Norway
Territoriet in Oslo shared the prize with Prism in Berlin
Finalists:
Fitzgerald, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Folii, Stockholm, Sweden
Geranium, Copenhagen, Denmark
Heunisch & Erben, Vienna, Austria
Les 110 de Taillevent, London, UK
Louise, Hong Kong
Prism, Berlin, Germany
Restaurant Anne-Sophie Pic, Lausanne, Switzerland
Territoriet, Oslo, Norway
Vin-Vin, Helsinki, Finland
Pasaline Lepeltier says of the joint winners: “They have both lived up to our expectations of having an openness in their wine list to discover great wines from around the world. There are classic wines but also new interesting, off the beaten track wines. They are extraordinary programmes at both restaurants. Bravo to them.”
International Special Jury Prize
Winner: Trivet London
Trivet’s wine list is the inspiration of Isa Bal MS
Admiralgade 26, Copenhagen, Denmark
Alter Torkel, Jenins, Switzerland
Concept Riesling, Düsseldorf, Germany
IFTM Educational Restaurant, Macau
Kornat, Vienna, Austria
Scheepskameel, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Wine Stories, Helsinki, Finland
The Special Jury prize is given to a restaurant or bar that the judges believe have an ‘out of the ordinary’ list that takes wine selection to the next level. This year’s award goes to Isa Bal MS and head sommelier, Klearhos Kanellakis that have brought something new and extraordinary to the wine range at Trivet in London.
Raimons Tomsons said the judging panel was so impressed by just how “brave and original” the list is. In particular they loved how the list is laid out in terms of chronological age of when a producers’ wine was first made, which meant far more space given over to some of the world’s first wine producing countries like Georgia, Lebanon, Israel and Syria.
“That is really exciting to see, both for wine geeks and wine lovers,” said Thomson’s. “There are so many new and adventurous wines to discover. It is educational as well as being original and smart and is really easy to follow. The list also represents classic styles as well as natural and wild boy low intervention styles.”
Isa Bal MS said the award is such a boost “after the year we have had”. Trivet’s chef Jonny Lake added:: “Thank you so much for this recognition of Isa’s work. It means so much to all of us at Trivet.”
Rosengren added: “Isa. You are a leader and an inspiration. I hope to visit soon.”
Best International Short Wine List
Winner: Ett Hem, Stockholm, Sweden
Ett Hem has mastered the art of creating a short wine list
The silver medalists in this category were:
Admiralgade 26, Copenhagen, Denmark
Belon, Hong Kong
Cafe de Klepel, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hill & Szrok, London, UK
Konstantin Filippou, Vienna, Austria
Yeast, Geneva, Switzerland
Zum Grünen Gaul, Bochum, Germany
Arvid Rosengren said: “This category is a real favourite of mine. It is infinitely harder to make a good short wine list and it is really hard to make a compelling small wine list like this, a list so full of gems. It’s diverse and just amazing in every way. Sweden is very proud of Ett Hem and every wine person that goes to Stockholm goes there. It is such a diverse and deep list as well. Any wine lover will find something exciting there.”
Niklas Ödman, sommelier at Ett Hem, said: “I like to have a short list of just the best wines that I want to drink. If I don’t want to drink it I don’t put it on the list. So it is a very personal list, and people seem to like what I am doing.”
Austrian Wine list winner – Sponsored by Austrian Wine
Winner: Heaven 23, Gothenburg, Sweden
Silver Medalists
Fitzgerald, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Geranium, Copenhagen, Denmark
GRAPES Weinbar, Munich, Germany
Happolati, Oslo, Norway
Heaven 23, Gothenburg, Sweden
Newcomer Wines, London, UK
Restaurant La Riva, Lenzerheide, Switzerland
Robuchon au Dôme, Macau
Savoy, Helsinki, Finland
Marc Almert from the judging panel said he is particularly fond of Austrian wine himself and it was the one of the first countries he had to chance to visit and get to understand outside of his native Germany. “I am very passionate about Austrian wine and this really comes through in this list. It showcases great wines, grapes and regions off the beaten track. It also features a huge section of red wines from Austria.”
Andreas Hiller, head sommelier at Heaven 23 said it decided about 15 years ago to really specialise its wine list around one country and settled on Austria as it has so much diversity that it could continue to keep its customers, who come from all corners of the world interested in different styles and types of wine from Austria. “When we looked around Austria had the diversity and quality that we wanted and makes it possible to keep surprising our guests, like with all the red wine there is from Austria,” explained Hiller.
UK Wine List of the Year Awards with The Buyer
Fine Wines Direct UK will be part of the online awards ceremony for the first UK Wine List of the Year awards on February 22 at 6om
The UK Wine List Awards co-hosted by The Buyer and Star Wine List were held for the first time in January with all restaurants and bars listed in Star Wine List UK’s directory entered automatically with entries also open to any other bar or restaurant in the country. The awards will return in 2022 with an in person event with more details to follow in the coming months. If you would like to be involved and partner with the awards and help with any of the categories then please contact Richard Siddle at richardsiddle@btopenworld.com.
- The results of the 2021 UK Wine List of the Year awards are here.
- You can find out more about Star Wine List here and profiles on winners here.
