IWC Awards 2022: See the results

By Harpers Editorial

Published: 08 July, 2022

The International Wine Challenge (IWC) awards were announced on a fine summer’s evening last night at London’s Hurlingham Club, where the achievements of both on and off-trade were celebrated alongside a number of new award categories.

This year, Liberty Wines led the score sheet by not only taking home the top award of IWC Merchant of the Year, sponsored by Harpers, but also by snapping up a further six awards, including Merchant Educator of the Year, Specialist Merchant Australia and Specialist Merchant Italy, which it has won for three consecutive years. Goedhuis & Co held on to the title of Specialist Merchant Burgundy and picked up Specialist Merchant En Primeur this year. The Wine Society also achieved multiple successes, including Specialist Merchant Austria, Specialist Merchant Portugal, Specialist Merchant Regional France, and Wine Club of the Year.

Elsewhere, Naked Wines won IWC Online Retailer of the Year for the first time, making it one of the youngest online retailers to ever win this award. The Innovator of the Year gong went to Vagabond Wines for two highly impressive campaigns which launched within the past year: Vagabond SOMM – a personalised wine subscription service; and Tap & Pour, a smartphone app that links Enomatic wine machines direct to customers’ bank cards.

This year’s Supermarket of the Year was Waitrose, for the third year in a row, while Marks & Spencer was Highly Commended in this category.

Helen McGinn, co-cohair and IWC UK Merchant Awards judge said: “The judges were truly overwhelmed at the initiative and excellence within the level of entries for the 2022 awards. Each year as the categories grow it’s never easy to pick winners from the amazing candidates that champion our wonderful industry.”

The full results are available to view here and are published as part of Harpers' July issue, out in print and online today.

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