The 8th annual London Spirits Competitions will take place on March 26-27 2025 in central London, and brands looking to get international credibility and product feedback from leading trade buyers, are encouraged to submit their products now. This is a great opportunity for producers and brand owners around the world to grow internationally.

Brands are encouraged to enter before the 2025 super early submission deadline of August 31, 2024.

The London Competitions prides itself on having award-winning buyers, bartenders, master sommeliers, masters of wine, and some of the most influential people working in the drinks industry. 

Individuals are tasked every day with deciding which products and brands are going to go on back bars and on to drinks lists on some of the most influential venues and bars in the world.

The winners of London Competitions have enjoyed success in trade and consumers.

With more partnerships coming its way in 2025, the London Competitions has now become a truly global benchmark when it comes to opening new markets and customers. The judging process is the key to being more relevant to trade along with its international presence.

KHB Brewery & Distillery owners Helgi Sigurdsson and Audur Vala Gunnarsdóttir said “I was looking for some competitions to enter for our products as I wanted to get a comparison with other brands. I knew we were doing some good stuff but wanted the international recognition that we could show to to buyers and distributors. “So we found [details about] your competition online and liked what we saw.”.

KHB Brewery & Distillery owners Helgi Sigurdsson and Audur Vala Gunnarsdóttir

“First we entered our KHB GIN in 2022. We received a silver medal and instantly the sales number grew here in Iceland. Here the gin market, like everywhere, is big and lots of brands, especially in a small market like Iceland, where the big distributors have a monopoly on the bars and restaurants, this was very important for us to showcase our gin. 

We then entered again with the hin in 2023 and also our moonshine, Landi. The gin received another silver medal and the Landi got bronze. 

Then our beers were sent this year and we got a lot of attention as we received one gold and 3 silvers. As every beer is linked to a folk story and by scanning the barcode, you will go to our website where you can listen to the story in English — so, there is like a short play about each and every beer.”

At the 2024 London Spirits Competition, this Croatian family distillery picked up seven awards for their products, including Aura Teranino Liqueur, which won three awards (gold, in the Liqueur category; silver in the Liqueur of the Year, and silver for Best in Show, by Country). Aura Gin Karbun won gold in the Spirits category; Aura Fernet Amaro 78 Liqueur took silver in the same category; Aura Aperitivo Car D’Oro was awarded silver in the Bitters & Mixers category and Aura Premium London Dry Gin took silver in the Spirits category. Head of marketing at the company, Anna Pernic, was interviewed to get her views on the London Spirits Competition, and here is what she had to say.

“Awards at competitions like the London Spirits Competition are a great basis for upgrading the brand, greater visibility, greater presence in the media and certainly increase the sale of the product itself. Therefore, it is very important for us to participate in competitions, and if the participation is successful, to communicate with customers in the best possible way.

Winning the award enables better positioning of the company on the market, increases visibility, and increases sales of the awarded product.

The London Spirits Competition is a competition we are especially fond of because it was at this competition in 2020 that we won our first gold medal. In that competition, we won a total of 12 awards for our products. And certainly, the most significant award is for our Teranino, which was declared Liqueur of the Year 2024.

The competition has very comprehensible written rules and the entire procedure is user-friendly, which we will surely register our products in the future.”

Judging process

The judging is 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.

Quality score: marked out of 100.

Value score: marked out of 100

Packaging score: marked out of 100.

The Judges

Pictures from left: PAOLO PERRINI - BAR SUPERVISOR AT CLARIDGE’S, DIANA ALADZIC BAR MANAGER AT SOHO HOUSE & CO., MICHELE LOMBARDI HEAD OF MIXOLOGY FOR FOUR SEASONS AT PARK LANE. Judges of London Spirits Competitions.

The London Spirits Competition has worked in the last few years to build up the pedigree of its judges and to ensure they all have direct buying responsibilities and understand the disciplines by which certain spirits are chosen to go on a drinks or cocktail list or not.

The Ritz, The Stafford, The Connaught Bar, Gleneagles, Roka, 45 Park Lane, and Dukes Hotel are just some of the prestigious names represented on the judging panel.

It is those skills that the event is looking for in order to pick out the most commercial as well as best quality drinks being entered into the competition. As the competition is focused on quality, design, packaging, and value for money it requires judges that have the professional experience of analyzing spirits in all aspects of their commercial competitiveness.

For any distiller, brand owner, producer, or importer the competition is an opportunity to have your products assessed by the top premium on-trade spirits buyers in the country.

What new for the 2025 London Spirits Competition

The eighth edition of the London Wine, Spirits, and Beer Competitions will be introducing the Regional and Category Ambassadors Program for the 2025 edition. This transformative initiative invites industry leaders and influencers to educate consumers and trade professionals about their respective regions and categories on the global stage. The program aims to establish London Competitions as an international benchmark, focusing on helping winners make a significant impact globally. Ambassadors and experts will also advocate for the top category winners worldwide.

Along with the launch of the ambassador program, the competition will also be introducing several new marketing and sales opportunities to showcase the 2025 winners around the world. London Competitions have signed a stand at the Prowein 2025, Wine Paris 2025, and a few other expos around the world to start showcasing the winning products to international trade.

The competition will be hosting a big winners press call within 2 weeks of the 2025 winners announcement where special category winners will be invited to do a press call to the international trade, UK trade, and global press.

The competition will also have importers and distributors as the judges for the first time to give brands a chance to be noticed by UK importers and distributors as well.

The submission for the London Spirits Competition is now open. Brands looking to get international recognition and to get in front of the world’s top bartenders and spirits buyers are encouraged to enter the brands now. 

Take advantage of the super early bird pricing that is on till August 31, 2024.