One of America's leading international wine competitions, the USA Wine Ratings has just announced its judging panel. With 11 Masters of Wine, national and regional buyers, and some of the finest wine directors in the country, the competition is set to have the top panel of trade judges for its 2021 competition.

The USA Wine Ratings competition, which is organized by Beverage Trade Network prides itself on working with preeminent judges that have direct buying responsibility in their roles. This competition that happens every year in San Francisco will see buyers assess wines by their quality, value, and package.

Now into its 4th year of operation, the competition continues to add new partnerships to give winners increased awareness and has grown rapidly with both domestic and international entrants.

These are the Masters of Wine who are judges at the 2021 USA Wine Ratings:

2021 USA Wine Ratings - Masters of Wine in Judging Panel

• Mollie Battenhouse MW, Master of Wine, National Director of Wine Education at Jackson Family Wines

• Ashley Hausman MW, Master of Wine, Educator, Consultant, Sommelier at Mistral Wine School

• Kryss Speegle MW, Master of Wine

• Susan R Lin MW, Master of Wine and Head of Wine Expertise for online fine wine retailer Belmont Wine Exchange

• Tim Hanni MW, Master of Wine

• Martin Reyes, MW, Master of Wine and Founder Of Reyes Wine Group

• Peter Marks MW, Master of Wine, Partner & Vice President at Napa Valley Wine Academy

• Roger Bohmrich MW, Master of Wine

• Olga Crawford MW, Master of Wine

• Bob Paulinski MW, Master of Wine, Founder and President, Stellar Bottles LLC

• Clare (Brown) Tooley MW, Master of Wine and Director of Wine Development for Lionstone International

• Henry Brimo, Wine Category Manager - Southeastern Grocers, Jacksonville, Florida

• Dan Philcox Liquor Sales Manager – Albertson’s Companies (Shaw’s / Star Market)

The Judging Process

Each submission is assigned a unique submission reference number. The wines are assigned a score for quality and value on a blind-tasting basis. Following this, the wines are brought to the judges again with the packaging revealed for the packaging score for that flight.

At USA Wine Ratings Judging

The Scoring system

Q (Quality Score) + Value Score (V) + Package Score (P) = USA Wine Ratings Score.

A score will be given for each of the three parts of the judging process with Quality holding twice the weight. The scores will be aggregated with those of the other judges for the same product on the team to give a final score from which individual prizes will be awarded.

Quality Score: will be marked out of 100

Value Score: will be marked out of 100

Package Score: will be marked out of 100

Definitions:

Quality: Quality will be assessed based on how agreeable the wine is for its target customer and its chemical analysis. The quality of the wine is measured considering the following characteristics: Appearance, Aroma, Body, Taste, and Aftertaste.

Value: The objective is to understand how well a particular wine is priced and the value it offers. The better the quality offered for the price, the greater the value score will be.

Package: Packaging will be measured by how well judges think the wine will be perceived by the consumer. The package will be judged for the off-premise market considering factors like label design and information, closure, and overall look. This does not involve boxes, cartons, and bags. It is how the judges think the product will be perceived when placed on a wine shelf amongst thousands of other wines.

Being part of the Beverage Trade Network carries a number of significant benefits for competition entrants. Beverage Trade Network is one of the leading global platforms connecting wineries with importers, distributors, and retailers globally. They acknowledge the profile of the wine in the eyes of the trade especially promoting your brand to importers and distributors globally.

Here are some of the benefits of and reasons why you should enter your wines in the USA Wine Ratings.

1. Raise your brands’ profile, prestige, and credibility with importers, distributors, press, retailers, and consumers around the world.

2. Instill confidence in trade buyers about the marketability of your wine as UWR rates wines by their value, package, and quality.

3. Receive scores feedback: You may see the individual score feedback on how your products fared with quality, value, and package.

4. Create confidence for your wines in consumers: The ratings that your products receive gives the consumer a sense and stamp of approval.

5. Winners to get unparalleled global reach via the BTN network. See winning impact for further details.

6. Receive tasting notes and feedback from Judges.

7. Increased consumer reach: Winners will be promoted on BevRoute, SommeliersBusiness, Beverage Trade Network, and the Los Angeles Drinks Guide all year round.

8. Winners will receive a free 90 days listing on the Get Drinks Delivered platform to drive consumer eCommerce and awareness. 

Find out more about the USA Wine Ratings.

View the judges making up the judging panel.

Judging Date: July 26, 2021

Winners Announced: August 10, 2021