the Decanter World Wine Awards 2025

This article is reposted from Decanter's WeChat public account.

On May 6th, the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA), the world's largest wine competition, officially opened its judging week at the ExCel Exhibition Centre in London.

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Decanter magazine, this year marks the 22nd edition of the DWWA, bringing together 254 judges from 35 countries, including a record-breaking 73 Masters of Wine (MW) and 22 Master Sommeliers (MS).

On the first day of the judging week, Co-Chair Beth Willard emphasized to the judging team: "This year, there are many new wines awaiting evaluation, and our focus is on discovering the exceptional ones among them. Today's winemakers face unprecedented pressure, making it even more important to highlight the outstanding qualities of these wines" .

Experts will conduct three rounds of blind tastings on wines from 57 countries and regions.
The first round selects Gold (95-96 points), Silver (90-94 points), and Bronze (86-89 points) medals.
Gold medal winners advance to the second round to compete for Platinum medals (97-100 points).
The final judging panel selects the highest honor, "Best in Show," from the Platinum medal winners.

2025 DWWA New Changes
To accurately assess value for money, a mid-range price category has been added this year:

A (Value): Under £14.99 (approximately HKD$ 157) 
B (Mid-Range): £15-£49.99 (approximately HKD$ 158-525) 
C (Premium): £50 and above (approximately HKD$ 526 and above) 
The judging process employs a simultaneous blind tasting system with panels of three experts, limiting each judge to 80 wines per day to avoid palate fatigue. Every participating wine (including those that do not win awards) will receive detailed tasting notes. Co-Chair Andrew Jefford noted, "The unique value of DWWA lies in collective consensus—in the coming days, your professional judgments will collectively shape the authority of this event".

2025 Judging Panel New Faces

"This is our most diverse and experienced team to date," said Co-Chair Michael Hill Smith AM MW. New judges this year include:

Edward Ragg MW (China) 
Benjamin Hasko MS MW (Singapore) 
Kamal Malik MS (Maldives) 
Nimmi Malhotra (Singapore) 
Susan R Lin (USA) 

Judging Core Principles:
Ronan Sayburn MS (Co-Chair): "The primary consideration is the typicity of the region and variety, followed by exploring the subtle expressions of terroir".
Dr. Wojciech Bońkowski MW (Regional Chair for Central and Eastern Europe): "White wines have made leaps and bounds in the past decade, and red wines are catching up, with modern styles appealing more to younger consumers".
Amanda Barnes MW (Regional Chair for Chile): "Chilean wines exhibit surprising diversity, with distinct regional differences, and Malbec performs particularly well".

Appendix: Award Judging Process
First Round Blind Tasting: Bronze (86–89 points), Silver (90–94 points), Gold (95–96 points)
Wines scoring 94 points or higher are reviewed by the Regional Chair 
Second Round Blind Tasting: Gold medal wines compete for Platinum medals (97–100 points) 
Final Blind Tasting: Top 50 Platinum medal winners are awarded "Best in Show" 

Sustainable Practices
DWWA continues to promote environmental initiatives:
Optimizing logistics to reduce carbon footprint 
Eliminating single-use plastics (tablecloths, spittoons, etc.) 
Recycling glass bottles and corks (the latter turned into organic fertilizer) 
Converting residual wine into biogas (10,000 liters ≈ 3 months of electricity for a UK household) 
Sending kitchen waste to London ExCel's on-site worm farm for composting 
Since 2023, the competition has allowed wines in non-glass bottles to participate, encouraging sustainable packaging.

Results Announcement

The results of the 2025 DWWA will be released globally on Decanter.com on Wednesday, June 18th. Information on awards won by Chinese wines will be simultaneously published on DecanterChina.com and major social media platforms.