THE WINE MERCHANT. An independent magazine for independent retailers
Issue 124, May 2023
Dog of the month: Kimchi Kimchi’s Wine Shop, London
Top 100 winners reveal depth of indie trade’s offer This year’s list proves that there’s excellence available in independent shops whether you’re spending £8.99 or £110
A
cross-country panel of independent wine merchant judges has put together another
outstanding selection of winning wines for The Wine Merchant Top 100 2023. Top performers range from an £8.99 South African white to a £110 Champagne. Representatives from Moldova and Turkey also take their places alongside the best of the big guns in Australia, France and Italy. The 11th edition of the competition, which is devoted exclusively to wines in the independent trade and judged entirely by specialist independent wine retailers, saw a record number of entries, with more than 1,020 wines submitted and put to the test by a team of 36 judges across the UK in the final two weeks of April. As well as selecting the Top 100 and Highly Commended winners, the judges
This year’s competition will also list the highest scoring wines under £15
picked out 10 Trophy-winning wines, the crème de la crème of the competition.
competition, both in terms of the number
The 2023 competition also sees the
of entrants and the quality of the winners,”
“The traditional heavyweight wine
introduction of a new category specifically
says competition director David Williams.
regions put in a strong performance,
for wines with a retail price of £15 or below.
He adds: “We’ve noticed an inevitable
but the results reflect the rise in quality
The Trophy winners will be available
upwards drift in the average price of the
winemaking all over the world, and it’s
competition winners this year.
interesting to see trends such as orange
to taste at The Wine Merchant stand at the London Wine Fair on Tuesday, May
“The independent market is much less
wines in our new under-£15 category.
or skin-contact wine coming through,”
16, ahead of the publication of the full
price-sensitive than other parts of the
results in a special supplement to The Wine
trade, but many retailers are looking
Merchant in July.
for wines at lower price points, so we’re
• See the run-down of this year’s Trophy
particularly pleased to see the quality of
winners on page two.
“This was the strongest year yet for the
Williams adds.