From Skivarp to Kittelfjäll: the finalists competing in Star Wine List of the Year Sweden 2025

By Rachel Fellows

Published 06-March-2025

News / Sweden

On 7 April 2025, Star Wine List will celebrate Sweden’s best wine lists for the seventh time, with an awards ceremony in Stockholm. The judges are now ready to announce their 67 finalists, who stretch all over the country and will compete across 14 categories.

Star Wine List of the Year Sweden is our original wine list awards event, which began in 2018 to highlight the work done by the incredible sommelier teams who craft the wine lists in our favourite restaurants and wine bars.

For this 2025 competition, we have four top judges, who have now assessed all entries and agreed on their finalists – see the full list below. The judges have decided to offer a Special Jury Prize this year, a category only offered at a jury's discretion to recognise a method or outlook that is particularly impressive.

The teams from these shortlisted venues will be invited to our event in April, and those who win in the international categories will receive a subsequent invitation, to Vienna, to compete in our International Final for this year.

Good luck to all entrants!

Judges

Salvatore Castano, Nina Jensen, Kathrine Larsen-Robert MS and Andreas Grube.

The jury panel for Star Wine List of the Year Sweden 2025 includes four top wine experts:

• Salvatore Castano - Best Sommelier of Europe & Africa 2021 (ASI)
• Nina Jensen – Second-Best Sommelier of the World, 2019, 2023 (ASI)
• Kathrine Larsen-Robert – Master Sommelier
• Andreas Grube – wine writer, Stockholm Ambassador

INTERNATIONAL CATEGORIES:

Grand Prix

The best list of the overall competition.

The finalists and winner will be announced at the event.

Best Long List

– For wine lists with more than 600 references.

Best Medium-Sized List

– Recognises the best wine list with 200-600 references.

Best Short List

– Recognises the best wine list with fewer than 200 listings.

Finalists:
Babette, Stockholm
Bar Nîmes, Stockholm
Bord, Stockholm
Café Cuvée, Stockholm
Combo Vinbaren, Stockholm
Frö, Sälen
Lyran Matbar, Malmö
Minh mat, Stockholm
Restaurang Triton, Stockholm
Woodstockholm, Stockholm

Best By the Glass List

– Recognises the best ‘by the glass’ list.

Best Sparkling Wine List

Best Newcomer List

Finalists:
Bar Nacka, Stockholm
Ergo, Stockholm
Fir, Malmö
Glou Glou Vinbar, Linköping
Hotel Fratelli, Karlstad
La Fonderie, Malmö
Lilla Vinbaren, Malmö
Stockholm Stadshotell, Stockholm
V Bar, Norrköping

Sustainable Wine List

– Recognises a wine list that has put extra emphasis on the wine program’s overall impact, including vine growing, winemaking, packaging and transport. Assessed via a questionnaire during the application process.

Best Austrian Wine List

Best California Wine List

LOCAL CATEGORIES

Best German Wine List

Best Beaujolais Wine List

Best Swedish Wine List

Finalists:
Gro Stallbacken, Örebro
Hörte Brygga, Skivarp
Julie, Malmö
Portal, Stockholm
Restaurang Jord, Linköping
Spiseriet, Varberg
ÄNG, Tvååker

Special Jury Prize

– Recognises a venue that has done something extra with their wine list, in terms of direction, style or value.

Finalists:
La Strega, Gothenburg
Leijontornet, Stockholm
Savant Bar, Stockholm
The Winery Hotel, Stockholm

Categories and criteria

Star Wine List judges the wine lists in several categories such as the Best Sparkling Wine List and Best By the Glass List. These categories are the same across all of the awards. In addition, local categories may be added. We have commercial partners for certain categories, such as the Best Austrian Wine List, presented by Austrian Wine. The commercial partners are, however, never involved in the selections of finalists or winners – that is completely up to our independent jury panel.

The criteria for the jury are straightforward but not simple: vote for the most exciting wine list representing the category.

The winners in the international categories will qualify for our International Final in June 2025, where they will face off with the category winners from other countries and continents.

Read about the terms and how Star Wine List judges the wine lists here.

Note: Piotr Pietras MS was previously announced as jury member. He had to leave the panel and was replaced by Salvatore Castano.

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Austrian Wine

The Austrian Wine Marketing Board is based in Vienna, and is a national service body for the Austrian wine industry. The aim is to strategically support, coordinate and maintain quality and sales.

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