Wineries can enter a talent contest to win UK listings

Published: 26 April, 2012

Wineries looking for UK stockists can enter a talent contest allowing them three minutes to pitch their wines to a team of influential trade buyers - three will win national listings.

Wannabe suppliers must submit their pitches to Winestars online, where a panel of judges will analyse them, whittle the list down to the top 100, out of which 10 contenders will proceed to a live final at LIWF on May 24.

"Winestars will provide the fastest, most transparent, route to market for wine producers. It will allow for wineries from anywhere in the world without a UK agent/distributor to enter, have a chance to show their wines in a state-of-the-art format that optimises information, media and networks in order to create opportunities and for the best, to gain listings," said founder Catherine Monahan, owner of Clink! Wines. Wine expert Robert Joseph is also involved in the process.

At the final, each winery will be given three minutes to pitch their products to a group of judges and a floor panel made up from bloggers, other producers and journalists.

The judges are Justin Howard-Sneyd, global buying director at Direct Wines; Joan Torrents, group wine director at Mitchells & Butlers; Ben Stephenson, Hanging Ditch wine merchants; Catherine Monahan, owner Clink Wines; Robin Davis, founder SWIG; Kevin Shaw, founder Stranger & Stranger Design. A multiple grocery retailer has also been invited.

Winners may be listed at either a grocer, pub chain, independent specialist or direct-to-consumer online business.

Winestars, wine-stars.com, will go live this evening, and is supported via Twitter, Facebook, Linked-in and YouTube, where wineries can upload and share content.

The 90 wineries who don't make the final 10 will then be up for online auction for 10 days for any retailer or importer to buy or list their wines.

The closing date is May 10 2012, and the final will take place on May 24 at 1pm in the Access Zone at LIWF in London's ExCeL.

The next stage for winestars is a consumer event in October, which will include an interactive entertainment/food/wine element, followed by live audience X-Factor style show, which will allow consumers to vote via smartphone apps. It will also be rolled out to Prowein in 2013, Hong Kong and possibly the USA in 2013.

Email awards@wine-stars.com or follow on Twitter via @WINESTARS1 for more information.

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