World Alcohol Free Awards Announces 2024 Medal Winners
The world’s largest, leading alcohol-free drinks competition has today announced the 2024 medals. Hundreds of non-alc products, from wines, spirits and beers to kombuchas, aperitifs and cocktails were put through their paces by a panel of top tasters from across the world in London earlier this month, and the results are officially OUT!
The World Alcohol-Free Awards received 450 entries this year from 21 countries and were judged by eminent non-alcoholic specialist tasters from seven different countries across Europe, North America and the UK. JOMO Club’s Founder Gemma Mills was among these judges serving as one of the team leaders.
Established by former Michelin-starred drinks buyer and non-alcoholic specialist, Chrissie Parkinson and respected drinks writer and editor Chris Losh in 2022, The World Alcohol-Free Awards is in its second year and has quickly grown to become the largest alcohol-free drinks competition in the world.
Competition Co-Founder & Director Chris Losh said, 'It’s been really heartening to see the support for this competition from producers all round the world. Alcohol-free is a huge global trend and we’re excited to be able to reflect that.’
Each medal winning entry was tasted up to 12 times by the judges, who awarded a total of 58 Golds, 87 Silvers, and 110 Bronze medals.
Medals will start to appear on bottles and websites from May 2024, and the final round of judging to determine the 2024 Trophies will take place over the next month with the winners being announced on 15 May. The Gold medal winning drinks will be showcased at this year’s London Wine Fair at Olympia, London (20-22 May).
Among the categories that most excited our judges this year were vermouth, aperitifs and wine-alternatives. There was also a significant growth in genuinely unique products with no alcoholic counterpart.
Co-Founder Chrissie Parkinson said ‘We’re seeing a real growth in quality and complexity from the best producers in this space now - particularly in wine.It’s a category where producers really can’t stand still if they want to be the best. In fact, across the whole AF sector, drinks that might have been considered exceptional even two or three years ago are now often being surpassed by exciting new versions.’