New York City sweeps a total of 50 three-star awards in the 2018 World’s Best Wine Lists Awards, with establishments including: Bar Boulud, Morrell Wine Bar & Café, Terroir and The NoMad Hotel receiving the honors in addition to having already been awarded, respectively: Best Short Wine List in the World; Best By-the Glass Wine List With Coravin® in the World; Best By-the-Glass Wine List Without Coravin® in the World; Best Spirits List in the World during the ceremony which took place at Vintners’ Hall on September 11th 2018. Other New York based three-star winners included: The Modern, Tribeca Grill, Restaurant Marc Forgione, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, The Lambs Club, Ai Fiori and Restaurant DANIEL.
London is second, picking up a total of 44 three-star awards for establishments including: 28°-50° Wine Workshop & Kitchen, Maddox Street (also winner of Best Micro Wine List in the World) and La Dame de Pic (also winner of Best Medium Size Wine List in the World); Hélène Darroze at The Connaught; 67 Pall Mall; Sager + Wilde, Paradise Row; Sketch (also winner of Best Spirits List in Europe) and HIDE (also winner of Best By-the-Glass Wine List Without Coravin® in Europe). In the UK capital, other three-star honors recipients included: Seven Park Place by William Drabble, Bubbledogs, Château Latour at Ten Trinity Square, Hakkasan Hanway Place and MASH London.
Other global recipients of the prestigious three-star honors include among others: The Barn at Blackberry Farm, Walland, TE (also winning Wine List of the Year 2018 and Champions’ League World’s Best Wine List 2018); Pilu at Freshwater, Sydney, AU (also winning Best Regional Wine List in the World 2018); Pix Pâtisserie, Portland, OR (also winner of Best Champagne & Sparkling Wine List in the World 2018); Bern’s Steak House, Tampa, FL (also winning Best Dessert & Fortified Wine List in the World 2018); Nº5 Wine Bar, Toulouse, FR (winner of the Best Wine Bar List in the World 2018); Restaurant Mosaic at The Orient Hotel, Pretoria SA (also winner of Best Hotel Wine List in the World 2018); The World Residence at Sea (also winner of the Best Cruise Ship Wine List in the World 2018).
Numerous restaurants around the globe received jury prize recognitions, including: Ai Fiori, New York; The Lambs Club, New York; The Modern, New York; Masani Italian Dining & Terrace, Carlton, Australia; Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sydney; The Cut Bar & Grill Sydney; Vue de Monde, Melbourne; Geranium, Copenhagen; The NoMad Hotel, Los Angeles; Tartine Manufactory, San Francisco; Petrus Restaurant at Island Shangri-La Hong Kong; Pampa Roja, Argentina; La Gaffe, Saint-Florent, France; and TENSHINO at Pullman Bangkok King Power.
In its fifth anniversary year, the World’s Best Wine Lists Awards’ prestigious judging panel – chaired by Neil Beckett, Editor of The World of Fine Wine – featured: writer and broadcaster, Andrew Jefford; award-winning sommelier, Andreas Larsson; publisher and writer Ch’ng Poh Tiong; wine writers Elin McCoy, Francis Percival and Alder Yarrow; sommelier, Luciana Girotto; wine writer and lecturer Anne Krebiehl MW; and WSET International Training & Development Advisor, Jeremy Wilkinson. They have assessed over 1,000 of the world’s best wine lists to determine the shortlists and winners.
All of the finalists in the World’s Best Wine Lists Awards must reach certain standards in relation to a range of criteria, among which the most important are: the breadth, depth, interest, quality, and value of the wine selection (relative to the nature and size of the list and any specialism).
A three-star award recognizes a great wine list and takes into consideration a very high proportion of leading producers, established and emerging; a very good mix of vintages in terms of age, maturity, quality, and style; an extensive by-the-glass and half-bottle program; and clear evidence of originality, personality, and vision.
Since their inception in 2014, the awards have gone from strength to strength, and are “rapidly becoming as coveted as Michelin Stars,” according to former World Sommelier Champion Gerard Basset MS MW OBE. On the awards, The World of Fine Wine’s Editor, Neil Beckett, commented, “In its fifth year running, and at its first live ceremony, the World Best Wine Lists Awards was honored with the presence of guests from every continent apart from Antarctica. I think that the geographical spread of our top winners speaks volumes for the global spread of fine wine and also for the global scope of these awards”.
For the full list of winners please click here.
