Judging

The IWC Industry Awards' judging process stands as one of the most thorough, rigorous, and esteemed processes in the wine industry, ensuring that our awards maintain the highest level of respect and recognition. Our objective is to offer entrants a comprehensive evaluation of their business while ensuring that all awards are distributed fairly and meritoriously.

A panel of expert judges is hand-picked by International Wine Challenge to decide the winners. Great care is taken to avoid conflicts of interest, and all judges must sign a non-disclosure agreement form before being allowed to receive the entries.

The judges draw up a shortlist from the entries for each category. The judges can disqualify an entry if it fails to meet the criteria. They can also reassign an entry to a different (or extra) category if they consider it appropriate. Each category is judged against the criteria outlined in the category entry form.


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Who are the IWC Industry Awards Judges?

Neil Bruce

Wine Margin Optimiser. London based. Joined the wine industry in 1992 with Seagram. Previous roles, since Seagram, include various senior sales positions, Commercial Manager at Bibendum (in charge of buying and supply chain teams), Wine Director at national wholesaler WaverleyTBS, Wine Consultant for four years (working exclusively with wine in On Trade) and latterly Head of Wine at Fuller’s / Asahi.

Occasional writer and has also contributed regularly to wine industry panels and debates over the years. Left Asahi to set up own wine consultancy (Studio Alto) as of December 2020. Has spent as much time on the sales side of the table as he has in senior buying roles.

Studied WSET up to Diploma level and has been a regular wine judge at various wine competitions.

Laura Jewell MW

Regional General Manager at Wine Australia for the UK and Europe since 2015, Laura previously spent 5 years heading up the wine development team at Tesco. She has also held significant roles at SPAR, HWCG and Sainsburys. Laura's specialities include UK bottling, all aspects of supermarket retailing and marketing.

Helen McGinn

Helen is the author of The Knackered Mother’s Wine Club, an award-winning wine blog and best-selling wine book. She spent almost a decade sourcing wines around the world as a wine buyer for Tesco, then spent the next half-decade pregnant. Married with three children, she writes a weekly drinks column for the Daily Mail’s Femail magazine and has been the resident wine expert on ITV’s The Alan Titchmarsh Show.

Her latest book, Teetotal Tipples, was published in December 2016 and her third book is due in the Autumn. Awards include Fortnum & Mason’s Online Drink Writer of the Year and Red Magazine’s Best Blogger.

Anne Burchett

Anne Burchett DipWSET is a freelance wine marketing and communications specialist, and a writer and lecturer on the business of wine. She has worked for over thirty years in a number of general management, and sales and marketing positions for various French wine producers, namely, Chantovent, Skalli, Vinival, Grands Chais de France and Castel UK, and for Waverley Vintners.

Her latest role before setting up her own business was MD of Sopexa UK, an agency for international marketing, promotions, press and public relations specialising in food and wine.

She has written a novel, Tasting Notes, which was published on Amazon in December 2020.

Abi Hirshfeld

With over 20 years of experience in the wine trade, Abi is highly experienced in sourcing quality wines from producers and establishing routes to market. She is currently working freelance on a variety of projects as well as lecturing on wine buying and negotiation.

Abi spent several years as Buying Director at Berry Bros. & Rudd where she was responsible for the management of supplier relationships, producer acquisitions and for all wines sold by both the BBandR private client business as well as Fields, Morris and Verdin (FM&V), a specialist wine importer and distributor.

Previously, Abi had been Wine Director at Direct Wines Ltd (trading as Laithwaites Wine), responsible for buying all wines sold globally, including the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Germany, Austria, and Poland. Abi held various roles here including Head of Merchandising, Wine Buyer and International Wine Director.

Laure Patry

Laure began her career in North Yorkshire and Bath as part of her initial UK placements following sommelier school in Angers, the Loire Valley before moving to London in 2003.

In total, she has worked the past eight years for Gordon Ramsay Holdings, including almost two years as Assistant Head Sommelier at Claridges, and a further six years as Head Sommelier at Maze where she gained the respect and attention of Jason.

In 2015 just set up her own project with Jason at Social Wine and Tapas, a retail and wine bar/Tapas which focuses on smaller producers. Due to the difficult trading environment, it was closed in 2019. She continues to work as executive head sommelier for the group and supports each new restaurant opening and assists all.


Jonathan James

Jonathan joined the Forecourt and Convenience retail sector in 2000. Working with leading brands such as BP, Budgens and Spar the business quickly grew into an award-winning retailer with the first one being the prestigious UK Forecourt Trader of the Year 2003. In 2019 Jonathan won the Retail Industry Awards Outstanding Achievement Award. Jonathan is Chairman and owner of James Convenience Retail Ltd which is one of the largest family-owned convenience store operators in the UK with some 50 stores.

Jonathan is a former Chairman of the UK Association of Convenience Stores and remains a Main Board Director. Jonathan also spent 4 years on the International Committee of the National Association of Convenience Stores based in Washington DC. Jonathan is a regular contributor to the National media and a conference speaker regarding convenience retail.


Sam Caporn MW

Sam Caporn has been in the wine industry for over 20 years and runs her own wine consultancy business; The Mistress of Wine which she set up in 2012. Prior to that, she travelled extensively around the world blending and buying wines whilst working for Accolade Wines and Direct Wines. At the latter, she was responsible for Australia, New Zealand, the Loire, Champagne and Central and Eastern Europe. Four years as Tastings Co-ordinator at Wine Magazine preceded those roles and was arguably one of the very best jobs to have whilst studying for the Master of Wine exams. Sam went on to pass both parts of the examination (both practical and theory) first time and in a career, highlight was awarded the 2011 Madame Bollinger Foundation Award for Excellence in Tasting which is awarded to the individual who achieves the highest marks in the rigorous Master of Wine blind tasting papers.

When will the entries be judged?

Judging will take place in May 2024. The finalists in each category will be published online on 14 May 2024. The winners will be revealed at the IWC Awards on 9th July 2024.





For information on the IWC Merchant Awards Spain click here.