Entries invited for London Spirits Competition. Drinks Trade joins as its first exclusive Australian media partner.

Bartenders and bar managers of The Connaught Bar, Dukes Hotel, Soho House, Shangri-La, Langham, The Savoy, D&D London, The Stafford, Taj Hotels, Sofitel, The Brown Hotel, Annabel’s Club, The Ritz and other prestigious hotels and bars will gather once again in March at the 2022 London Spirits Competition.

In its fifth year, the 2022 London Spirits Competition remains on track to become one of the most important spirits competitions in the world and Drinks Trade is proud to be partnering as their exclusive Australian trade media partner for the first time.

Organisers expect that judges will have more than 2500 spirits submitted for entry from more than 80 countries with brands to be reviewed by the best bar talent in the world. All trade buyers of London Spirits Competitions have direct or in-direct buying responsibilities and are involved in trade.

In last year’s competition Australian distillery, Mt Uncle won Gin of the Year for its Botanic Australia’s Navy Strength Gin.

Only professional spirits tasters are involved in the judging process. London Spirits Competition says it has worked hard these past year to build up the pedigree of its judges and to ensure that all judges have direct buying responsibilities and understand the disciplines by which certain spirits are chosen to go on a drinks or cocktail list or not.

Selected cocktails will also be shown on London Drinks Guide, Bartenders Business and On-Trade online magazine.

The London Spirits Competition looks to recognise, reward and help promote spirits brands that have successfully been created to identify with and target a specific spirits drinker. For any spirits brand to earn its place on a retailer’s shelf or a restaurant’s spirits list –  and then stay there -it needs to be marketable and consumer-driven and not just produced in the general hope it can find enough people willing to sell and buy it. That is why the London Spirits Competition is different. It will single out and shine the spotlight on those spirits brands that consumers really want to buy and have a clear market value for trade buyers.

Judging criteria

To win a London Spirits Competition award brands need to score highly in all three areas of judging criteria: outstanding quality spirits, appropriate price and excellent packaging.

The London Spirits Competition is decided based on the following judging formula making it a more relevant global spirits competition: Q (Quality Score) + Value Score (V) + Package Score (P) = London Spirits Competition Score.

A separate weighted score will be given for each of the three parts of the judging process (Quality gets twice the weight. The scores will be calculated with other judges for the same product on the team to give a final score from which individual prizes will be awarded.)

Call for entries is now open.

Entries are invited 2022 awards are now open and anyone looking to grow their brand in 2022 is encouraged to enter in the competition. The 2022 competition comes with additional benefits where entrants will also be able to submit their cocktails which will be shown on the competition website.