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LWC: The Uncommon Wine “Best Wine of the Year by Packaging”

At the 5th edition of the London Wine Competition which took place in London on March 21 and 22, 2022, canned English wine pioneer, The Uncommon, took home “Best Wine of the Year by Packaging” for its beautifully illustrated Bubbly White Wine.

Up against some of the finest bottles from around the world, The Uncommon’s Bubbly White – affectionately known as Gerald – also won a gold medal in the sparkling wine category, with a score of 90. Meanwhile, its Bubbly Rosé – Eleanor – was awarded a silver medal.

The Uncommon is paving the way for a new era of English wine, with its award-winning sparkling wines and spritzers – designed to thrive in cans. The UK’s No.1 producer of English wine can score highly in the judging criteria of quality, value, and packaging to receive these honors.

Image: The Uncommon Wine

Image: The Uncommon Wine

The London Wine Competition is designed to applaud and award the wines that drinkers and wine lovers would enjoy choosing from a wine list of a restaurant in London or simply pick at a retail wine store. To be able to achieve this, the criteria of the London Wine Competition is to look at the wines as a whole. The panel of judges scores the wines based on their quality, expertise, and potential they are made with. It also includes two other essential factors – the Value the wine offers and its Packaging. The combination of the judging criteria gives the wines sommelier, peer, and buyer accreditation that adds a feather in the cap of the winners.

Sid Patel, CEO of event organizer Beverage Trade Network says, “A wine is more than just a drink, it is a whole experience. That is why the London Wine Competition is designed for Sommeliers and experienced buyers to evaluate wines the way wine drinkers do. Yes, they analyze the quality of the wines thoroughly; they are then asked to judge and award scores based on the value and packaging of the wine.”

Image: Sid Patel, CEO, Beverage Trade Network

Image: Sid Patel, CEO, Beverage Trade Network

Henry Connell, Co-founder of The Uncommon added: “In the past, many didn’t believe English wine would ever be good enough. Some still don’t believe good wine should be in cans. We’re unbelievably happy to be breaking the mould on two fronts. Official, objective, excellence.”

Image: Henry Connell, Co-founder of The Uncommon

Image: Henry Connell, Co-founder of The Uncommon

The panel of judges at the competition consists of Sommeliers from some of London’s finest restaurants, buyers, and traders that have extensive commercial buying responsibility. The entrants of the London Wine Competition have the assurance of their wines being judged for the whole product and not just the liquid inside.

The wines at the London Wine Competition were judged on the basis of three primary criteria – Quality, Value, and Packaging - and then scored on a 100-point scale. Wines that scored 96+ points were awarded Double Gold medals, the ones that scored 90 to 95 points were awarded Gold medals, those that scored 76 to 89 points were awarded Silver medals, whilst Bronze medals were awarded to wines that scored between 65 to 75 points.

About The Uncommon:

The Uncommon was founded in 2018 by long-term friends Henry Connell and Alex Thraves, who quit their corporate jobs in New York and London respectively with a dream of creating a modern, sustainable English wine brand. Having seen the boom in canned wine in the US and the accolades received by English wine, they knew that it was time English wine followed suit – and so The Uncommon was born. Today, The Uncommon is the UK’s no.1 producer of English wine in a can, paving the way for a new English wine era with its locally grown, sustainably made, English sparkling wines & spritzers – designed to thrive in cans. Earlier this year, The Uncommon became the first UK winemaker to achieve B Corporation status, joining a growing group of companies reinventing business by pursuing purpose as well as profit.

Image: The Uncommon Wine - “Best Wine of the Year by Packaging” at the London Wine Competition - 2022

Image: The Uncommon Wine - “Best Wine of the Year by Packaging” at the London Wine Competition - 2022

Having started in 2018 with just 10,000 cans, the brand is set to sell one million cans in 2022, through nationwide retailers including Waitrose, M&S, and Selfridges, as well as its E-commerce store and selected on-trade outlets. The Uncommon Wine Of England.

About the London Wine Competition:

The London Wine Competition is one of the leading international wine competitions of its kind that rates wines by quality, value, and packaging. The organizers of the event are Beverage Trade Network, which organizes wine industry events around the world. The competition takes place in London every year. For more information, please see: London Wine Competition.

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