Mountain has the best wine list overall in the UK
On March 4 Star Wine List and The Buyer returned to the UK to celebrate the best wine lists and the teams behind them, for the fourth time. Mountain in London was the big winner with Gold Stars in three categories, including Grand Prix for best list overall. The Grand Prix category was presented by Bibendum.
Mountain's sommelier Holly Willcocks was overwhelmed on stage when she and the restaurant received the Grand Prix for the best UK wine list overall.
”It's such a pleasure and honor. It's been such a fun task putting the list together, and I’m just glad that other people seem to agree. For us, it's always been about finding wines that come from beautiful places, made by kind people that treat the soil, the land, and the people respectfully. And generally on the lower intervention side, but we've always been looking to reach towards those cleaner styles of wines that suit a Soho location a little bit better,” said Holly Willcocks.
Asked what her favourite part of Mountain's wine list, she highlighted Mountain's so-called 'Down to Earth' section.
”My favourite part of the list is the ’Under 50’ list, which we've named ’Down to Earth’, where we try and highlight good bottles of wine under 50 pounds, because they really are there if you spend enough time looking for them. And because not every meal should cost the world,” said Holly Willcocks.
Jury member Federico Moccia had this to say about why Mountain won the award:
”An outstanding work in making this wine list, encompassing quality and depth, showing classics and new producers, discovering new terroirs, and emphasizing the most renowned. Well done.”
Mountain also won Best Long List and Best Newcomer List.
UK is included to our 2023-2024 International tour, and this was the fourth time we were running it in UK, in partnership with The Buyer.
Mountain will now qualify for our International Final in June 2024, where they will face off with the category winners from other countries and continents.
Jury
The jury of our fourth UK awards was filled with sommelier champions:
• Heidi Mäkinen MW
• Piotr Pietras MS
• Julie Dupouy-Young
• Federico Moccia
• Raj Parr
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.
Read about the terms and how Star Wine List judges the wine lists here.
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Bibendum
Bibendum is one of the UK’s most successful drinks businesses. As a premium wine and spirits partner, we are a countrywide specialist for the On Trade, supplying wine to 13% of the market.
