Wine competitions are organized events where trained judges or consumers blindly taste and rate various wines to ensure unbiased comparisons. While some critics question their reliability, many believe these competitions have significantly contributed to improving wine quality globally.
Most competitions award medals—bronze, silver, gold, and double gold—or "Best in Class" distinctions in different categories, though some utilize ordinal ranking to determine a single winner. These systems differ from journalistic 100-point scores, which are individual assessments rather than competitive rankings.
Among the top international events, the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA), founded in 2004 in London, became the world's largest by 2014, receiving over 15,000 entries from more than 47 countries. Other significant competitions include the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, known as the "Wine World Championships" for its vast participation, and the Best Wine of the World (BWW), established in 2017, which rapidly gained prominence with over 1.3 million public votes for 22,588 wines in its first year. The Berlin International Wine Competition uniquely involves European wine buyers judging by category and actual price.