Vivino, the world’s most used wine app and online marketplace, has launched its 2021 Community Awards in Hong Kong, an ambitious move that vows to give voice to what it calls “candid and honest reviews” from its 400,000 wine drinkers rather than mainstream wine critics.
Unlike the typical wine awards judged by a small group of elites,Vivino’s 2021 Community Awards are billed as “the largest industry awards wholly decided by consumers, not critics.”
Championing approachability over elitism, one of the award list has revealed Hong Kong’s top 25 favourite wines of 2021. The list is generated from the unbiased and honest reviews of more than 400,000 opinionated wine drinkers in the Hong Kong Vivino community.
The new move represents Vivino’s effort to challenge the elitism of the wine industry, “The world of wine has had a reputation of being limited to a select group of people. The Vivino Community Awards highlight that there’s a passionate and diverse community of wine lovers, who aren’t necessarily trained wine critics, eager and more than qualified to share their opinions about the wines they love,” Vivino Head of Asia-Pacific Morten Fillipsen said.
Launched in 2010 as a wine recommendation app, Vivino now boasts over 50 million users in 17 different markets and has evolved to an influential community-based wine marketplace.
As Hong Kong has a mature wine community with the highest basket price among its all 17 markets, the continual demand from Hong Kong despite the pandemic had contributed to Vivino’s promising sales increase last year. Its wine sales reached US$265 million in 2020, which is more than double of 2019’s US$130 million.
To be eligible for the Vivino Community Awards, wines needed to receive at least 50 ratings from Vivino’s users on the platform over a 12-month period. The global and local lists presenting the best wines of 2021 are currently available for markets including the US, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
Among Hong Kong’s top 25 winners, red wines dominate the list with 17 wines represented. In comparison, there are just 7 sparkling and one white wine.
By region, France leads the top 25 list with 9 entries. More than one quarter of the winners were Champagne. This is followed by Italy with 7 entries and Spain with 6. Argentina, New Zealand and Lebanon rounded out the list with 1 entry each.
Interestingly, Some of Hong Kong’s deep pocketed wine lovers are also curious drinkers. Vivino users in Hong Kong voted for a very unpredictable wine from Lebanon, which is a 1998 Rouge (Gaston Hochar) from Château Musar in Bekaa Valley among the top 25 list.
Whilst the top 25 list includes some under-the-radar wines, some high profile brands like Dom Perignon, Krug and Chateau Lynch-Bages continue to be loved by Hong Kong’s wine savorers.
“Not all of these wines and producers will be familiar to everyone, and that’s OK. Our hope is that the Vivino Community Awards help you discover your next favorite wine.” Vivino founder Heini Zachariassen commented.
Scroll through the page to see what are the top 25 wines that captured Hong Kong wine lovers.
Pages: 1 2
I would be really, really curious to know how many people in Hong Kong tasted Musar, let alone the 1998 Rouge…I know about 50, but these are part of an elite group of wine drinkers.
In order to make this “award” credible, number and procent of voters should be published.