How The Wine Merchant Top 100 is judged

• The judges are divided into teams of three, joined by our senior judges and the chairman.
• The tasting takes place over two rounds.
• The tasting is blind, but tasters are informed of the region, grape variety, price and vintage of each wine.
• Each flight is arranged so that wines are judged alongside wines of similar style.
• At the end of each flight, each team decides whether the wine is a “yes” or a “no” for round two.
• The “yes” wines go through to the second round. “No” wines are re-tasted by the chairman or senior judges and may also go through to the second round.
• In the second round, the shortlisted wines are tasted blind by the teams of judges to establish a “shortlist” for the final Top 100.
• The chairman and senior judges then re-taste the shortlisted wines.
• We then carry out some final checks to ensure the winning wines are genuinely independent-focused and available in the UK and the winning 100 are revealed.