The Wine Merchant Top 100 is back, and we’re now calling for entries from any business that supplies great wines to the independent trade.
To us, “great” doesn’t have to mean expensive. Our judges – all of them independent merchants – are looking for wines that offer superb value, whether they are priced £10 or £100. Our list of winners regularly includes wines from a broad price spectrum, and they’ve all impressed in their own way.
The Wine Merchant Top 100 judging is a blind tasting, conducted over two rounds. It involves around 40 independent wine merchants, including a senior panel which aims to ensure consistency. These senior judges are often called upon for guidance or a second opinion by our teams of judges.
How do you select your judges?
The panel is changed every year. We try to make the group representative of the independent trade in all its forms, with indies from across the UK and representing different types of wine businesses, from traditional shops to the coolest hybrid stores. You can see the list of 2025 judges taking shape here.
Can indies enter their own directly-imported wines?
Definitely, and we’d love to see more of these wines in the competition.
Where does the judging take place?
Our new home, since 2024, is Big Penny Social in Walthamstow. We made a short film about last year’s event that you can check out on our Instagram page.
How do the judges arrive at their decision?
Judges are split into teams and blind-taste flights of wines. A percentage of these wines go through to the second round, at which point the teams are reshuffled and the remaining wines re-flighted and tasted afresh, this time with scores and notes being submitted by the judges. The highest-scoring wines emerge as the Top 100 winners, with all other wines that made it to the second round being Highly Commended.
Enter your wines now
Email Claire Harries (claire@winemerchantmag.com) to request an entry form or click here. We need completed forms by March 14; the deadline for sending wines (four bottles per entry) to Sensible Wine Services is March 21. Wines cannot be on sale in any multiple (including Majestic and Waitrose) and must be available to independent merchants from UK stock.
The Wine Merchant Top 100 