1 minute read
Top 100 winners reveal depth of indie trade’s offer
Across-country panel of independent wine merchant judges has put together another outstanding selection of winning wines for The Wine Merchant Top 100 2023.
Top performers range from an £8.99 South African white to a £110 Champagne. Representatives from Moldova and Turkey also take their places alongside the best of the big guns in Australia, France and Italy.
Advertisement
The 11th edition of the competition, which is devoted exclusively to wines in the independent trade and judged entirely by specialist independent wine retailers, saw a record number of entries, with more than 1,020 wines submitted and put to the test by a team of 36 judges across the UK in the final two weeks of April.
As well as selecting the Top 100 and Highly Commended winners, the judges picked out 10 Trophy-winning wines, the crème de la crème of the competition. The 2023 competition also sees the introduction of a new category specifically for wines with a retail price of £15 or below.
The Trophy winners will be available to taste at The Wine Merchant stand at the London Wine Fair on Tuesday, May 16, ahead of the publication of the full results in a special supplement to The Wine Merchant in July.
“This was the strongest year yet for the competition, both in terms of the number of entrants and the quality of the winners,” says competition director David Williams.
He adds: “We’ve noticed an inevitable upwards drift in the average price of the competition winners this year.
“The independent market is much less price-sensitive than other parts of the trade, but many retailers are looking for wines at lower price points, so we’re particularly pleased to see the quality of wines in our new under-£15 category.
“The traditional heavyweight wine regions put in a strong performance, but the results reflect the rise in quality winemaking all over the world, and it’s interesting to see trends such as orange or skin-contact wine coming through,” Williams adds.
• See the run-down of this year’s Trophy winners on page two.
