An Endeavour Group own-label tawny wins Wine of the Year at international competition

Cat Amongst the Pigeons’ Fat Cat Tawny has been crowned Wine of the Year at the 2024 London Wine Competition, beating its competition in judging categories such as quality, value and packaging.

Cat Amongst the Pigeons is one of 700+ brands produced by Pinnacle Drinks, an Endeavour Group company that creates and manages its own in-house portfolio. Australia’s second biggest accolade at the event was also awarded to an own-label brand, with Coles Liquor-owned 2021 Choosy Beggars Cabernet Merlot being awarded Best Wine of the Year (by Value).

2024 marked the competition's seventh instalment and involved a judging panel of leading hospitality sector and wine buying professionals. 

“The London Wine Competition is uniquely positioned as being business-orientated and the fact that it attracts a lot of Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers gives it the highest overall standard of any competition when it comes to the quality of judges”, said David Round MW. 

The business-orientation means that aspects such as packaging and value contribute to the events final results. 

“There is a very interesting and well organized competition with some new ideas on judging wine not just on quality,” said Susan Hulme MW.

“I liked scoring by quality, value and packaging.”

Following behind the Cat Amongst the Pigeons Fat Cat Tawny was the Mount Pleasant Winery Tawny Port Vol. XXII in second and the Landmark Grand Detour Pinot Noir in third, both from the USA. 

The London Wine Competition is owned and managed by the Beverage Trade Network, one of the world‘s leading networks for importers and distributors to source new brands.

“The London Wine Competition is becoming more widely known in the trade with each passing year, as the 2024 approaches, we plan to make London Competitions more global with the inclusion of regional ambassadors around the world,” said Sid Patel, CEO at the Beverage Trade Network.

“London still attracts the most sophisticated taste pallet when it comes to trade judges making it a solid test ground for both international and domestic brands to get critical feedback especially on the new products that producers plan to take out in the market,” 

Overall, Australia received 43 gold medals including five wines scored 95 points or above. The full judging panel for 2024 included Eric Zwiebel MS, Sara Muirhead MW, Matteo Montone MS, David Round MW, Susan Hulme MW, William Lowe MW, Demetri Walters MW, Svetoslav Manolev MS, Christopher Delalonde MS, Annette Scarfe MW, Alvaro Ribalta MW, Beans Boughton MW, Tim Triptree MW, Yves Desmaris MS, Mike Best MW.

A full list of results can be found online here.