The Buyer | People’s Choice Wine Awards’ 2021 wine finalists

The People’s Choice Wine Awards has enjoyed another successful year with entries from all over the world, and a big response to the bursaries it offered to help with smaller producers put their wines into the competition.

The People’s Choice Wine Awards through the imagination of Private Eye cartoonist Tony Husband who creates an original cartoon for each award category

How have been the entries for the 2021 competition? Any stand out changes and trends in terms of wines and businesses that are entering?

Wine entries have been fantastic – we really didn’t know how this dreadful year would impact on submissions to the awards.We’ve had more boxed wines and also far more wine in cans, which is great news.We still have a wide range of companies submitting, from very small importers, producers of all sizes, online retailers (more this year for probably obvious reasons) and supermarkets.

You introduced bursaries this year for two of your categories – how has that worked and what sort of response did you get it?

We’ve had double the amount of boxed wines this year, fuelled in part, by the bursaries kindly given by Smurfit Kappa which reduced the entry fee by half.Similarly a huge response from Portuguese producers to the New to Market Red and New to Market White categories, due to the promotion and bursary from Wines of Portugal.All the finalists in both categories are fantastic Portuguese wines.

This also helped raise awareness of the competition in Portugal and we’ve had a good number of producers submitting their wines to other categories too – some have had multiple finalist places.

How have you been able to do the judging during Covid-19 – have you had chance to do any in person judging?

There was a chance to do some in person judging in November in Chester

It has been a monumental effort. During November, we were able to run some smaller judging sessions in business venues in Cheshire (a low tier area at the time) which had the space to safely distance people attending.All judges were local and we also enlisted the help of some local trade judges who were on furlough or who had recently lost their jobs. They were thrilled to help out and taste some wines.

No consumers were asked to travel outside of their home town to attend. Of course we had the full PPE too.Bearing in mind we usually carry out the judging over two days with around 100 people, we will have carried out 16 judging sessions, including virtual judging.

The in person judging was done in full PPE Covid-safe conditions

How did you manage the virtual judging?

Wines have been decanted and samples delivered within an hour of opening and tasted on the same day.We didn’t want to risk any spoilage in wines.It has been fun to see people on screen trying the wines in the comfort of their own homes.All have been really excited to take part.

A key part of your USP is having consumers involved in the judging – how have you selected your panels this year and got them involved in the judging?

Our original selection of judges, chosen from an online application process, was reduced, dependant on where they lived, in relation to the sessions (even with virtual tastings, as we needed to deliver promptly).This has, however, prompted us to change things next year and have more regional judging sessions throughout the UK.We’ve got plans for events in London (some in association with WSET, our official education partner), Manchester and the Midlands too.

Consumers were still able to get involved in the judging, albeit from their homes

You are now publishing the finalists for the People’s Choice Wine Awards – any trends you can see there?

The fantastic quality of Portuguese wines, both white and red – also remarked upon by our trade judges.The growth in popularity of wines in alternative packaging and the improvement in quality of those wines too.

To find out the finalists in the wine categories then click here.

Chance to have your vote in the Retailer Awards

The shortlist in each category for the People’s Choice Retailer Awards have been selected. Now it is the chance for anyone in the trade to vote for who they think should be the winner in each one. Please note only one vote per person is allowed. Any duplicate votes will be disregarded.

Best Independent Wine Merchant (sponsored by Lanchester Wines)

The following independent wine merchants have been shortlisted in this category: