The USA Wine Ratings prides itself on working with top-level judges that each have direct buying responsibilities in their roles. Each panel of USA Wine Ratings will also include a Master of Wine. The key individuals in the USA wine industry that collectively have the buying power to list wines from all over the world that are entering the competition. Buyers with the experience of assessing wines on their quality, their value for money proposition, and how that is demonstrated through their packaging and design – the three key judging criteria.

The 2021 event is all set to take place on July 26, 2021, in San Francisco where wines all over the world will be reviewed on quality, package, and value. Entrants will not only get the score breakdown as valuable feedback, but the organizer Beverage Trade Network has also rolled out shelf talker templates and tasting notes feature that the entrants will get in their entry zones.

BOB PAULINSKI MW Master of Wine

The super early bird entry process for the 2021 USA Wine Ratings is open until February 10, 2021. 

The Judging

Eric C. Sigmund, Esq., CS, CSW, Total Wines and More wine buyer at the time of Judging.

Judges are asked to give scores to the wines based on the key criteria with a weighting system in place to ensure quality wines come to the top.

The awards are broken down like this:

Q (Quality Score) + Value Score (V) + Package Score (P) = London Wine Competition Score.

A separate weighted score is given for each of the three parts of the judging process (Quality gets twice the weight. The scores are calculated with other judges for the same product on the team to give a final score from which individual prizes will be awarded.)

Quality score: marked out of 100

Value score: marked out of 100

Packaging score: marked out of 100

Entries open for the 2021 competition

The entry process for the 2021 USA Wine Ratings is now open and anyone looking to enter can take advantage now of a super early bird pricing package  – up to February 10, 2021 – that allows you to save $40 per entry.

Once again all wines entered into the competition will be assessed and judged by a leading panel of top-level wine buyers with current direct commercial buying responsibility. The panel also includes wine consultants and experts who are also directly involved in the development of new wine brands or buying wine for commercial resale.

Wines are judged bling for the quality and value, and then packages are shown for the package score.

These are the buying experts that are judging and assessing wines every day in their working lives and are therefore ideally placed to pick out the winning wines for the 2021 competition. They are also ensuring any wine that receives a gold, silver, or bronze medal will work on any on-trade wine list and help outlets sell more wine and attract more customers.

Here are the key details for the entry process for the 2021 competition.

Key Dates

Super Early Bird Deadline: February 10, 2021

Early Bird Deadline: April 30, 2021

Final Deadline: June 30, 2021

Warehouse Deadline: July 5, 2021

Judging: July 26, 2021

Winners Announcement: August 10, 2021

Fee Schedule

Super Early Bird Pricing - $80 (December 1, 2020, to February 10, 2021)

Early Bird Pricing - $100 (February 11, 2021, to April 30, 2021)

Regular Pricing - $120 per wine (May 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021)

How To Enter