RAISE A GLASS
PEOPLE power is a wonderful thing! I went to the People’s Choice Wine Awards the other night and it was exciting to see so many lovely wines nominated in such fun categories as Girls Night In, or Treat Yourself Red, or the Great Outdoors.
And the best thing … the wines were there because people like you had voted for them.
The People’s Choice Wine Awards were founded in 2017 by Janet Harrison, owner of Cracking Wine, and it’s the only national wine competition to have its base outside London.
Janet has thanked the consumer judges, 100 of them, who had applied via social media to be at the Round One judging session last autumn. One judge had even travelled from Vietnam; and another from Romania.
Says Janet: “It is fantastic to see so much love and enthusiasm for the competition.”
This year, the wines up for judging doubled in number, with more national supermarkets involved, such as Aldi, Lidl, M&S, the Co-op, Booths and Waitrose.
On the night, all the nominated wines were lined up to taste, before the winners were announced. I was pleased to see several which have graced this corner of the written wine world.
It was also fabulous to meet
people from wine retailers, merchants and winemakers, who were over the moon that consumers had voted for them to be there. They can’t succeed without you.
As there were 28 categories, I can’t do all the winners justice here, so here’s a tasty handful of them.
First, a high five to Best Supermarket of the Year, Booths, while the Wine Society came out tops as Online Retailer of the Year.
I mentioned the Girls Night In award, and it was won by Bird in Hand Pinot Noir Rosé (£10,49, down from £13.99 until February
18 at Waitrose).
It’s an Australian pink, with notes of strawberry
and cherry blossom. Ah, lovely.
The wine which won the accolade for Food Friendly Wines – White for Easy Weekday Meals is another from Oz – Botham 76 Series Margaret River Chardonnay (£9, down from £11 at Tesco until February 24).
The winner of Bargain Buys was Paparuda Pinot Grigio, created in Romania by Cramele Recas. You’ll find it at several retailers including online at Tanners (£7.50).
The Wine Society picked up three wine gongs and one that’s soft, low in alcohol and with a tease of a spring breeze and peaches, is Moscato d’Asti, Elio Perrone, 2018 (£8.50). It won the Mindful Drinking prize, which embraces low/no alcohol.
The Co-op also picked up three
awards, including one for Co-op Fairtrade Irresistible Organic Malbec (£7.50) – one of my favourite reds – which was the winner of the Back to Nature category.
I gave you a nod last week that The Rhona Brut Rosé (£11, from Marks & Spencer) was nominated in a Fabulous Fizz category. It was beaten to the prize in the “sparkling wine, rest of the world” award by its sister wine, Graham Beck Brut Rosé NV (£15.99, or £11.99 in a buy six deal at Majestic).
■ For more details, and the full list of winners, go to peopleschoicewineawards.com
■ Jane is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers. Find her on social media and online as One Foot in the Grapes.