Entries close at 5pm on Friday 30th May 2025.

To qualify for the Top 50 selection and nationwide promotion, your wine must meet the following:

Retail Price

• Must retail at $30 or under in either New World North Island or South Island.
• If not currently stocked in New World stores, the normal recommended retail price (not promotional) must be under $30.

Volume Requirements

• Wines must meet the minimum volume listed in the [Class Schedule]

Country of Origin

• Wines from any country are eligible.

Overseas wines must:

• Have a New Zealand distributor.
• Meet the minimum volume requirements landed, cleared and available from the distributor's DC by Friday 29 August.

Packaging

• If selected for the Top 50, wines must be supplied in outers of 6 bottles to Foodstuffs DC.

We accept any wines that retail over $30 into the competition.

These wines:

• Are not eligible for the Top 50 promotion.
• Are eligible for medals and can carry New World Wine Awards medal stickers.
• May be ranged or stocked in New World stores at the discretion of each store.

Entries will be confirmed by email on Tuesday 3 June 2025.
This will include:

• Instructions for sending samples
• Labels to be printed and applied to the bottles

Sample bottles must be received by Friday 27 June 2025. How many you need to send are dependent on size and packaging:

• 750ml or 375ml bottles: 4 bottles required
• Cans or bottles under 375ml: 12 units required

For more detail around non-vintage wines, lot numbers, packaging formats, temporary labels, second bottling and closures, please refer to points 28-40 in the T&Cs.

Entries are judged using blind tasting and randomised repours to ensure fairness. Wines are scored on the 100-point system and medals are awarded as appropriate:

• Gold 95 points and over (95+),
• Silver 90 to 94 points,
• Bronze 85 to 89 points.

Wines are judged in vintage order, younger before older. The Chief Steward, Jo Gear, ensures judges don’t score any of their own wines entered into the competition.  

To avoid unintentional bias, over $25 wines are judged within their varietal class alongside the under $30 entries, and judges are not made aware of the price bracket of any entry. 

The Competition Director will email the suppliers of the 50 top-scoring wines on Monday 14 July 2025 with the good news!  

• If your under $30 wine has been ranked highly and selected for the Top 50, you’ll be asked to confirm your wine meets the eligibility as outlines above. You’ll have until midday Wednesday 16 July to confirm these points. If everything stacks up, your wine will be part of the five-week nationwide New World Wine Awards promotion and recognised as a Top 50 winner! Foodstuffs will guide you through the process step by step. 
  
  It is important to note that these results are under EMBARGO until October.​

As the competition uses the 100-point judging scale, all wines scoring 85 and above (Bronze, Silver, Gold) will be given their medals and judges' comments, which can be used to market your wines domestically and overseas.   

In addition, you’ll receive a medal certificate and a roll of 1,000 medal stickers for each Gold and Silver medal wine(s). Additional medal stickers and Bronze medal stickers are available to purchase. We strongly recommend you use your medal stickers to leverage the New World Wine Awards promotional activity to sell your great value, great quality wines.