Beverage Testing Institute Championship Rules & FAQ

Shipping and Logistics Support

After you've submitted your brands, you'll find detailed instructions on shipping your domestic or international product on the BTI Client Portal. Adhering to our guidance is critical to the smooth entry and clearance of your samples. Our support through the TTB, FDA, Customs and individual shipper regulations is FREE to BTI clients. Click the "Login/Submit" button in the top right corner or our site to get started.

Review Schedule

Here are our wine, spirits, and beer deadline calendars. Please submit your wine, beer or spirits samples by the deadline dates to be included. We can review your wine or beer “out-of-schedule” through our On-Demand service.

All entries must be registered by the 1st of each month and samples received by the 15th of each month.

FAQs

WHO CAN ENTER INTO BTI'S COMPETITIONS?

The Beverage Testing Institute reviews alcohol beverages and related product that are commercially available from any country. It is open to all producers, distributors, retailers, agents, importers, ad agencies or public relations offices.

HOW MANY PRODUCTS DO I NEED TO SHIP?

Beer: Ship (6) 12oz, 330ml (or equivalent volume) in bottles, cans, growlers, or crowlers
Wine: Ship (2) 750ml (or equivalent) bottles
Spirits: Ship (2) 750ml (or equivalent) bottles

WHICH CATEGORY SHOULD I ENTER MY PRODUCT INTO?

You can refer to our review schedules as a guideline. If you need more guidance, please email us.

WHAT FORMS OF PAYMENTS DO YOU ACCEPT?

We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, wire transfer (additional fees may apply), and U.S.-bank-checks. Please remember that payment is required for all entry and shipping fees before results will be released or published.

WHAT IS INCLUDED WITH MY ENTRY FEE?

Each full review entry receives:
– A blind tasting in dedicated sensory laboratory with expert judges
– A 100-point score based on our proprietary methodology
– A Professional tasting note
– Free digital shelf-talker image
– Use of our standard BTI award logo artwork
– A 3-year published review with your bottle image and your company information on Tastings.com for 3 years
– A Buy-It-Now button on your product’s review page to help boost your e-commerce sales

DO YOU HAVE VOLUME DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE?

Yes, please contact us for more information.

WHAT IS THE DEADLINE FOR ENTRY AND PRODUCT ARRIVAL?

Submission are due by the 1st of each month and samples are due by the 15th.

CAN I DROP OFF MY SAMPLES AT YOUR OFFICE?

Yes, our offices are open Monday thru Friday, 9am -5pm:

Beverage Testing Institute
4849 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Suite 304
Chicago, IL 60630

If you’re not able to drop off during those times please email us or call the office at 773-930-4080 to make other arrangements.

DO YOU OFFER PRIVATE UNPUBLISHED REVIEWS, EXPEDITED TASTINGS OR REVIEWS OF PRODUCTS NOT YET COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE?

We have a full-service consulting division available to help. We offer a range of confidential services: Quality control checks, pre-release/pre-launch reviews, developmental tastings, or comparative tastings and analyses with competitive brands. For more details, please email us.

WHERE WOULD I FIND INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR METHODOLOGY?

You can find more information about our methodology here.

CAN YOU HELP ME FIND A ILLINOIS DISTRIBUTOR?

Upon reviewing your product, we offer a unique solution for making connections with Illinois distributors. Contact us to learn more.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I CHANGE MY MIND AFTER I SUBMIT?

Clients who submit before or on a deadline, and cancel their submission within 14 days after that deadline, can opt for a full refund or a credit on their account. Clients who submit after a deadline and cancel their submission will only receive a credit on their account; they will not have the option for a refund.

For multi-list submissions, the deadline of your primary submission will be the basis for the 14-day credit or refund cutoff date. Under no circumstances will refunds for multi-list entries be given 14 days after the primary submission’s deadline. By submitting to the multi-listing option, you agree to the terms.

WHEN DO I RECEIVE RESULTS?

Wine and Beer category results are released and published 45 days from their deadline, and Spirit category results are released and published 60 days from their deadline. All paid products that have been entered and reviewed will be published on Tastings.com, no exceptions.

For non-published review options, please contact our consulting division.

WHAT IF MY PRODUCT RECEIVES A NOT RECOMMENDED (NR) REVIEW?

Upon release, you will receive a private link for your eyes only to see the tasting note describing the issue. NR reviews are not searchable on our site or by search engines.

HOW LONG ARE MY RESULTS GOOD FOR?

Your full reviews are published on Tastings.com for 3 years. After that they will be moved to our results archive. We offer the ability to renew your review, please contact us for more information

WHAT KIND OF POINT-OF-SALE MARKETING TOOLS DO YOU OFFER?

You can download your digital logo and certificate free of charge on the portal.

Soon, you will be able to order stickers, trophies, medals and other POSM from the portal as well.

Presently, please email our POSM Department to learn more and to place an order.

WHO DO I CONTACT FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT MY RESULTS?

You can reach out to one of our Directors for more information.

Published Review Program Rules of Entry

The Beverage Testing Institute published review program reviews alcohol beverages and related products that are commercially available in any country. It is open to all producers, distributors, retailers, agents, importers, ad agencies or public relations offices. Samples submitted must be the commercial, government label-approved package and MUST be available for purchase, either in the US or in their country of origin, at the time of submission. Liquid must be the same as that which is currently in-market. Entries that do not meet these criteria will be disqualified from the competition without refund. Do not place any stickers or obstruct front labels, your bottle will be photographed for online publication.

All participants agree to our usage policy. Entrants pay all shipping, customs and duty fees, no results will be released or published without full payment on account. Clients who submit before or on a deadline, and cancel their submission within two weeks after that deadline, can opt for a full refund or a credit on their account. Clients who submit after a deadline and cancel their submission will only receive a credit on their account, they will not have the option for a refund. You may replace your submission with a different product at no additional cost. If you fail to ship samples by the sample receipt deadline, your submission may be cancelled. If you fail to pay by the publication date, your results will not be published. We reserve the right to refuse service for any reason and refund your submission fee(s). Any samples shipped to BTI become BTI property 14 days after a given category deadline date and will be disposed of at our discretion.

All paid submissions that have been recommended by the panel will be published on Tastings.com, no exceptions. Wine and Beer category results are released 45 days from their submission deadline, Spirits category results are released 60 days from their submission deadline.

We reserve the right to modify these rules at our discretion.

Published Review Program Usage Policy

Beverage Testing Institute (BTI)is an independent, privately-owned corporation that conducts professional, blind tastings and reviews of beverage products for marketing and educational purposes. We do not accept sponsorship or advertising from any alcoholic beverage brand. Participation in BTI’s open-forum tastings and competitions is completely voluntary. The producers, brand owners, or marketers of the relevant brands enter the products that we taste into our competitive tastings. Each producer pays the standardized, per-product registration fee to enter their products into these tasting sessions or competitions. The registration fees cover the cost of administering the tastings and overhead associated with the distribution of the tasting results through various media.

We conduct monthly tasting sessions by product category according to our annual wine, beer, and spirits tasting schedules, see our review schedules for more information. Participants are entitled to use only their individual product’s tasting note and score for marketing purposes. BTI’s logos can be licensed for the purpose of supplementing the promotion of an individual product’s review. Use of unauthorized copies or approximations of BTI’s logos for any purpose is not allowed. All uses of BTI’s name and content in press releases must be approved by Tastings/BTI prior to dissemination. You may submit a press release featuring our name, reviews, and awards, or any print ads featuring our results and logo, by sending it to us at support@bevtest.com. Because wines have the potential to beneficially change in flavor and structure over time, if we have reviewed a wine more than once, we will publish multiple reviews for the same wine (exact brand and vintage) and always note the date of tasting. We do this to track the evolution of a wine for our readers. Since spirits, and the majority of beers, are based on a fixed recipe and do not beneficially change over time once bottled, we only publish the most current review for a given spirit or beer, so that our readership knows the quality level of the brand currently in the market.

It is our policy to allow licensed, approved reprints of the total results of any specific, individual tasting session for advertising purposes for a specified period of time. Because subsequent or prior sessions may be conducted by different panels, feature different groupings of products, and the possibility of product recipe re-formulations, we do not allow compiled listings of products from different sessions for advertising purposes. Results of various tastings are published on Tastings.com in the format of a searchable guide that is updated with the most current review for a given product, as we taste it. If you wish to license our category results or review content, contact us at consulting@bevtest.com.

Our tasting panels include senior staff members of Tastings/BTI, all of whom have had a minimum of three years experience as Tastings/BTI panelists and are recognized as world-class sensory evaluation experts in the field of alcoholic beverages. We also draw on a large pool of qualified members of the wholesale, retail, and on-premise sectors that have been trained in the use of our proprietary evaluation methodology and software. All products are tasted in flights by category, in random order. Samples are tasted blind and neat in Riedel stemware. No more than fifteen-to-thirty products are tasted in a two-to-three hour morning tasting session. Our tasting room has been designed to minimize outside factors and optimize the critical perception of our panelists through a combination of natural and synthetic lighting and a standardized color and descriptive template.

"The consistency and broad consumer reach of BTI ratings and reviews really solidified the quality message of our artisan brand and helped us build a well-distributed and highly regarded specialty portfolio of beers."
Laurent-Xavier Gilbert,
VP Development at La Brasserie Unibroue
"The BTI rankings have an effect on what restaurants put on their wine lists, and ultimately on what you might be drinking."
Joe Gray,
Editor, Chicago Tribune
"BTI is still the outstanding tasting organization, uniquely independent. Keep up the good work!"
Jan Wells,
VP of Marketing, Cannon Wines
"Beverage Testing Institute is a professional operation with a professional approach. I like that they are committed to truly blind tastings and that their reviews are comprehensive and informative. We highlight the reviews in our tasting room and post them on social media; the consumer response is very positive. "
Edwin Richards,
Winemaker/Owner, Adastra
“Our BTI awards have helped us with our US distribution. Sales have increased form 0 cases to 250 cases in just a couple of months. We opened two new accounts in Seattle and New York.”
Eduardo Aguirre Victoria,
Terre de Vignerons
“[BTI's] Tastings.com is well known as a main reference for connoisseurs, experts and followers of spirits.”
Otto Flores,
Ron Barcelo
"We have used Tastings.com (BTI) for the last 5 years and couldn’t be happier. They always have great customer service and support! Not only do they have detailed professional reviews and tasting notes, the addition of the metallic stickers and shelf-talkers help us capture customers, and drive bottle sales. The trophies, medals, and printed awards are displayed as center pieces in our tasting room. Their website is easy to navigate and has great product information."
Mike Huffman,
Whidbey Island Distillery
“Our winery has had BTI rate our wines for a number of years. We use the bottle stickers and shelf talkers for both education and to enhance our marketing. We have had distributors request bottle stickers, and during wine pourings, we use the shelf talkers as a customer take away. We appreciate the information written by BTI since we find it to be concise, descriptive, informational, and a well rounded review of our wines.“
Janet Soderberg,
Alamira Wines, Vistaflores Estate
When we found out that our 20 year Pappy Van Winkle had been entered in BTI's 1997 World Spirits Championships and received their 99-point rating, that’s when we started getting calls from distributors around the country looking for our whiskey.

That was a benchmark moment for our business. Every time we received a high rating from BTI over the years, interest increased for our brand.

We owe a lot to the Beverage Testing Institute for our success.
Julian P. Van Winkle, III,
President, Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery
BTI has been our go-to partner for our alcohol awards program for years now, providing quality reviews of our wide selection of wines, beers and hard seltzers. The unique quarterly submission process allows our team to highlight new, trending and seasonal offerings and the staff at BTI is always responsive, collaborative and supportive to help us reach our goals.
Carrie Reitz,
Corporate Buying US, ALDI Inc.
The trust that consumers, major retailers, distributors and suppliers have for BTI makes their reviews and recommendations an invaluable complement and a huge asset to the success of Atlas’ bespoke label brands. I enthusiastically recommend their tools and services to anyone in the control or private label beverage program spaces.
Jim Cosma,
Atlas Imports

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