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Are wine awards relevant these days?

Are wine awards relevant these days when, it is the ultimate consumer who decides to buy?  For all intents and purposes, consumers decide whether to purchase a particular wine based on several factors, for example, recommendation by friends or family; a wine they have tasted at a function or a random selection, which becomes the wine of choice. So why are we wine producers and suppliers so keen to have our wines rated?  Is it important to have sommeliers, whom we have never met determine whether our wines gain a reward or not?  I believe the importance of having wines rated, is not only to receive an accolade for the integrity of the particular wine but awards are also an endorsement for the hard work in creating a product that makes a sommelier sits up and take note.

We are thrilled that two of our wines entered into the US Wine Ratings 2023 received SILVER

What are your views on the relevance of wine awards? DM for information on Stewart Hill Wines.

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Ben Salisbury

Ben Salisbury, Founder and President of Salisbury Creative Group is a consultant, coach, content creator, public speaker, thought leader, subject matter expert, and entrepreneur for the wine and spirits industry.

His expertise in sales and marketing strategy has accumulated over four decades of work with some of the largest adult beverage companies in the world, including Ste Michelle Wine Estates and Constellation Brands.

Ben’s approach is to disrupt the status quo of how wines and spirits are marketed and sold, to challenge outdated practices, and to provide innovative solutions to help wineries and distilleries sell more products.

Ben frequently speaks at industry conferences, creates original content on his blog and YouTube channel, and has contributed articles to Wine Business Monthly.

Visit his website here.

Manuel Urcelay

Manuel has over ten years of experience in international business, in which he has developed a strong expertise in sales, business development, marketing and business strategy across diverse industries and regions, including wine and food. He has advised more than 30 companies on joint business plans, marketing implementations and supply chain management strategies in Asia, USA and Latin America, generating consistent revenue growth for all parties involved.

Manuel has recently completed his MBA at Imperial College Business School, where he expanded his knowledge and skills in innovation, marketing, operations, strategy and leadership. Manuel has made invaluable contributions to Stewart Hill’s Business Strategy and Planning”.

Rick Anderson

Rick is our Edinburgh-based Digital Design consultant, working remotely on everything from branding and label design to web and motion graphics.

Visit his portfolio site here.

Veronica King

Veronica is a Social Media Strategist and Business Consultant based in London.

Andrea Midas

Born in London, based in Spain with over 20 years of experience in Marketing and CRM for business development.

Graduate from LSE London with Branding, Sustainability and research qualifications in UK and Spain.

Bilingual English and Spanish.

Patricia Harvey

Patricia is a former, credit controller and worked for 15 years for one of the UK’s leading financial handling insurance including freight.

She has always had a passion for wine and have been for the past 4 years worked with us learning the wine trade. Pat recently participated in our exhibition at USATT Chicago.

Her role at Stewart Hill is to handle and develop our logistics.

Lucilda Stewart

Managing Director & Founder

Lucilda is the managing director and founder of Stewart-Hill Wines.  She manages general day to day running of the business, as well as key relationships with both key personnel and a dedicated team of consultants.  Lucilda also travels to overseas destinations to meet with distributors, wholesalers and retailers.  She commends the evolution of her wine journey, to her dedicated team of professionals and strong family ties.  The accolades by the US Wine Ratings 2023, which led to silver awards for their Orchida Negra (Crianza), Malbec labels and a silver award for their Rose by London Wine Competition, demonstrates the integrity of their wines and Lucilda’s indomitable will to succeed.

Lucilda studied at the Inns of Court School of Law and graduated from UCL London University in 1992.   She is a former lawyer,  who created her own legal niche company, working as an intermediary in accordance with the Bar Council’s direct public access to barristers scheme.  Her interest in wine, began many years earlier from casual tastings, training culminated in a Department of International Trade visit to Rioja Spain where she commenced discussions with wineries and honing her skills in wine exporting.

In 2014, Lucilda developed her own private label wine brand, working and investing in award winning wineries in Argentina and Spain.  Her dedication over the last 10 years, has led to award-winning varietals for B2B exports.