The 8th annual London Spirits Competition, which will take place on March 26 and 27 in 2025, is open for entries.
Brands looking to get international credibility and product feedback from leading trade buyers, are encouraged to enter the competition, which offer great marketing and new business opportunities for producers and brand owners around the world who are looking to expand their companies.
The organisers of the London Spirits Competition pride themselves on having award-winning buyers, bartenders, master sommeliers, masters of wine and some of the most influential people working in the drinks industry, as judges at the annual event.
Each year the organisers contact the winners to get their feedback to the event, which provides a steady flow of positive testimonials, including a recent comment from Jenny and Ben Card, owners of the Chalgrove Artisan Distillery in Oxfordshire, whose OX44 gin brand enjoyed success at this year’s event: “Retailers and wholesalers who were ‘indifferent’ to our products are now queuing up at our door. The curiosity it has caused amongst the trade and public has increased our sales dramatically.”
The owners of Downpour Gin, which was named as Spirit of the Year, said: “I can point to several new partnerships as a direct result of our LSC medals.
“This includes a listing with a high-end UK-wide department store whose buyer was on the judging panel.
“This also includes the opening up of a new export market after we were approached by an importer who had seen coverage of our success”.
With more partnerships lined up for 2025, the London Spirits Competition has now become a true global benchmark when it comes to opening new markets and winning new 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, (pictured) commenting on the 2024 event said: “We were looking for some competitions to enter for our products as we wanted to get comparison with other brands.
“We knew we were doing some good stuff but wanted the international recognition which we could show to to buyers and distributors. So, we found details about your competition online and liked what we saw.”
“We first entered our KHB GIN in 2022 where we received a silver medal and instantly the sales grew here in Iceland. Here the gin market, like everywhere, is big and lots of brands, and specially in a small market like Iceland, where the big distributors have monopoly on the bars and restaurants, this was very important for us to showcase our gin.
“We then entered our gin again 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 have got a lot of attention as we received one gold and three 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 Awards, a Croatian family distillery, Aura 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 on 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.
“Winning the award enables better positioning of the company in the market, increases visibility and increases sales of the awarded product.
“The London Spirits Competition is an event 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.”
What makes the London Spirits Competition is its judging system, which is broken down in to three element: the Q (Quality Score) plus the Value Score (V) plus the Packaging Score (P) gives an overall score out of a maximum of 100 points.
What’s new for the 2025 London Spirits Competition?
The eighth edition of the London Wine, Spirits, and Beer Competitions will be introducing 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 the 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.
The organisers have taken a stand at the Prowein 2025, Wine Paris 2025 and few other expos around the world to start showcasing the winning products to the international trade.
The competition will be hosting a big winners press call within two 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 to global press.
The competition will also be having 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.
Enter now and take advantage of the super early bird pricing that runs until 31 August 2024.
For more information about the 2025 London Spirits Competition visit their website