London’s leading wine list review service, Wine List Confidential, revealed its top 100 restaurants for 2019 with the release of its latest guide and an award ceremony celebrating the diversity of the capital’s wine offering.
The capital’s top sommeliers and restaurant staff attended the awards ceremony on Monday 20 May at the London Wine Fair.
As well as this year’s awards, the occasion marked the launch of the Wine List Confidential 2019 guide, which provides reviews of the top 100 restaurants, bars, clubs and pubs for wine lovers in London, each rated for value, size, range, originality and service.
Meanwhile, a top panel of judges including FT drinks correspondent Alice Lascelles, Evening Standard drinks writer Douglas Blyde, the drinks business editor Lucy Shaw, and famed food instagrammer Clerkenwell Boy deliberated over a wide selection of London’s wine lists for the WLC Awards.
As well as awards for best service, best value, most original list, and best overall, this year new categories were added in order to recognise the talent behind the lists, including two awards for sommeliers: Rising Star and Sommelier of the Year.
2019 also witnessed a new restaurant grab the top spot, with the head sommelier also picking up the gong for Sommelier of the Year.
Commenting on this year’s competition, Lucy Shaw, editor of the drinks business, who chaired the judges, said: “This year the competition for spots on the list is more intense than ever, and we’ve also seen some great variety with hybrid wine bar / merchants, micro lists, sustainable wines and many new and original offerings.
“London is one of the world’s great cities for wine lovers, and we hope the 2019 guide will encourage people to explore some of these excellent wine lists.”
For the full results for this year’s awards, please click through. To see the top 100 wine lists and complete reviews of each, please visit www.winelistconfidential.com
