The International Wine & Spirit Competition was founded in 1969 and is the premier Competition of its kind on the international stage. Its aim is to promote the quality and excellence of the world's best wines, spirits and liqueurs. This is achieved through a rigorous two stage judging process of professional blind tasting and detailed (chemical and microbiological) analysis. To ensure perfect conditions the IWSC premises included temperature-controlled cellars and three dedicated tasting rooms.

"The IWSC boasts the most highly qualified group of international judges of any wine and spirit competition in the world. We are inundated with applications from people who want to judge for the Competition, and have to turn people away every year. We make sure that our 40 MWs and our prominent trade judges from all over the world, are balanced by knowledgeable consumer or "lay" judges, who ensure that products are evaluated with consumer expectations in mind."

"All judges, including our MWs, must go through an induction process and a trial judging day before they are allowed to officially judge on a panel, and performance is constantly reviewed. We are not trying to be "Big Brother", but we owe it to participating producers and the consumer to be as accurate and consistent as possible in our evaluations."

Event: The IWSC Awards Presentation and Banquet:

Date: Thursday, 26th November 2009

Place: Guildhall, City of London