SWA medal haul lends sparkle to 2025 results
The results are in for this year’s Sommelier Wine Awards (SWA) competition with the major European producing countries leading the pack, but with a strong medal haul from Australia, and also high recognition for sparkling wines, including the English contingent.
As a competition, SWA firmly reflects the cosmopolitan nature of the 70+ judges who pronounced on the wines over the two judging days, comprising as they did leading sommeliers and restaurant wine buyers from many of the best restaurants and hotels across the UK.
Drawn from Hélène Darroze to Heron, by way of Noble Rot, Pine, 67 Pall Mall, Amphora, Moor Hall, Chewton Glen, Apricity, Gordon Ramsay and many, many other fine and Michelin-studded eateries besides, the quality of palates in the judging sessions was quite something to behold.
And the calibre of those judges is down to the fact that SWA is a firmly on-trade focused competition, co-chaired by Isa Bal MS, and judged ‘by somms for somms’, open only to wines that are exclusive to the on-trade.
As such, SWA attracts quality entries from top UK importers, with those wines firmly reflecting the best of the global winemaking scene. Run by Harpers Wine & Spirit in partnership with BCB London, it’s fair to say that this is by far the pre-eminent wine competition of interest to on-trade buyers.
Gold rush
The majority of the medals this year went to France, Italy and Spain, in that order, but with notably high success rates for smaller producing countries, including Greece, Portugal and the aforementioned UK.
The country bagging the most Golds was Italy, with 37 to its name, representing 20% of its total medal haul.
France came second on the Gold front, having to console itself with winning the most medals overall.
Notable, too, was Australia, which came third in terms of total Gold medals for one country, but highest when ranked as a percentage, with a whopping 42% of wines entered achieving Gold ranking.
A mention should go to sparkling wines, too, which delivered a strong crop of Trophy, Gold, Silver and Bronze medal winners. Moreover, among the more than 90% of sparkling wines that bagged a medal, just over 50% of the Golds went to English fizzes, which was a high accolade indeed, given the multi-national mix of judges in the room.
Overall, however, the Old World swept the board with Golds, pulling in 70% of the total, with this figure also reflected in the overall medal tally (Gold, Silver and Bronze), where again the Old World took 70% of the gongs.
Meanwhile, the split between reds and whites for medals and Golds was close on 45% each, with the remainder going to orange and rosé wines.
All medal-winning wines are available to view on the Sommelier Wine Awards website now, and the Merchant and Producer awards will follow, announced in Harpers Wine & Spirit July issue and online from 4 July.