90 stunning wines, 80 wine lovers and one uber-cool venue; this was the theme of the day at our inaugural Virgin Wines London Wine Awards 2012.
On Saturday 21 July, we headed to the trendy Club at the Ivy to host a wine competition with a difference. The London Wine Awards was all about wine lovers coming together to taste and choose their favourite wines, and where judging was exclusively by the people whose opinion we believe counts the most – that of you, our customers.
As the London Wine Awards got underway, our 80 wine judges for the day were divided into six groups and they worked their way through three flights of 15 wines each. All the wines were tasted blind with no indication of price. The judges then rated the wines they tasted using a scale of 1-20 – with 10 being “I am indifferent to this” and 20 being “Sheer heaven on earth”. Each customer judged each wine individually, while group leaders were on hand to help with any questions and guide them through the process.
The event included over 75 wines from our range, plus several well known supermarket brands as benchmarks. After a few hours of tasting, lots of weary palates and plenty of number crunching, the results were in.
We are delighted to announce that the overall wine of the day was our ever popular Perez Cruz Winemaker’s Selection 2010 from Chile. Other gold medal winners included our Shiraz Plays Shiraz Barossa Valley Shiraz 2009 and Seraph Reserve Touraine Sauvignon Blanc 2010. (Take a look at our website for the full London Wine Awards Trophy Winners case.)
This was the first time that we have hosted the London Wine Awards and it was a fantastic day. By the end of the event, our team of weary judges were rewarded for all their hard work with a tasty selection of canapés and a well earned post tasting drink (or two).
