International Open 2026 – more Golds and a new Bronze Star!
Diaries at the ready: all spring dates for this season’s Star Wine List of the Year tour are now available. What’s more, we’ve opened entries to this year’s International Open – our online competition for territories we won’t be visiting individually – with even more chances to win awards.
In February 2026, we will once again celebrate the wonderful wine lists of the world with our International Open, a contest incorporating any region that does not have its own, designated event on our awards tour. It means we leave no stone unturned in our search for Gold Star venues, and has become a hugely popular fixture on the Star Wine List of the Year schedule.
“Every year we see more and more great entries from around the world,” says Krister Bengtsson, Founder and Publisher of Star Wine List. “This year we want to highlight even more of those great wine lists and teams. Therefore, we are adding continental Gold Star winners who will qualify for our International Final in June. Plus, are introducing a Bronze Star for those who come just outside the judges’ finalist selections.”
This year’s event includes more chances for recognition than ever before:
- In each category, we will award Gold Stars per continent instead of just one winner
- We are introducing Bronze Stars into the judging matrix
- We have introduced a judging fee
Continental groupings for Gold Stars
For each of the 10 categories in the Star Wine List of the Year International Open 2026, the judges will award a Gold Star to the best wine list on each continent of:
– Africa and Middle East
– Asia
– Australasia and Oceania
– Europe
– The Americas
We will therefore name five Gold Stars per category. This means lots more chances to win a Gold Star, and therefore qualify for the International Final in June! However, please note that, within those continents, venues located in a territory with an existing competition are not eligible for entry. See below for more information.
Of course, it remains the case that a Gold Star is only awarded if the jury considers a contender to be of the highest level.
Bronze Stars
Venues that do not qualify as finalists in any category but have displayed a solid standard that the judges would like to acknowledge, will receive a Bronze Star.
Bronze Stars will be announced alongside our finalists, as formal commendations in the Best Short, Medium-Sized and Long List categories – a precursor to the final stage of the competition.
This is a new, entry-level endorsement that we hope will allow us to welcome many more venues into the Star Wine List of the Year orbit. Reaching the final in any category is highly competitive and indicative of an exceptional standard; even if a restaurant or wine bar has not quite made it into the finalist group, a Bronze Star enables us to honour their teams’ work – and we hope they will one day become a Silver, or even Gold Star in future competitions.
Entry fees
For the Star Wine List of the Year International Open 2026, venues are charged an entry fee of €190 to submit their wine lists into the competition. This is a one-off payment for each venue, covering their overall entry, regardless of how many categories are selected – it is not the price per category. This fee has been introduced to cover the costs associated with judging the fast-growing number of entries.
The deadline for entries was 14 December 2025.
Who is the International Open for?
We will accept submissions from venues anywhere the world, provided that we are not already hosting an awards event in that region on this season’s tour. Below are all the locations already covered in Star Wine List of the Year 2025/’26 – venues in these places are not eligible for the International Open. Submissions will be accepted from all other locations.
– Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
– Belgium & Netherlands
– Denmark
– Florida
– France
– Germany-Austria-Switzerland
– Japan
– New York (New York metropolitan area)
– Norway
– Southeast Asia (Brunei, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam)
– Spain
– Sweden
– UAE
– UK
If a venue mistakenly enters the International Open when they should be part of a different awards event, that entry fee will be transferred to the correct regional competition if entries are still being accepted; if entries in that region are not open, then the submission will be disqualified.
How does Star Wine List of the Year work?
A reminder of our Gold, Silver and Bronze Stars, and how they’re awarded.
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