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Bibendum named IWC Best Specialist Merchant for the USA - 04/09/2009

(Above: What we do best - hitting the dancefloor!)

The great and the good of the wine trade dressed up and got down at the glitzy International Wine Challenge (IWC) Awards Ceremony at the Grosvenor Hotel on Wednesday. Peter Lehmann collected a lifetime achievement award; Oz Clarke and James May a 'Personality Award' and the cream of the world of wine battled it out for the various other trophies.

When it came to our turn Bibendum triumphed in the following areas:

Winner: Specialist Merchant of the Year for the USA - this came off the back of our comprehensive and high quality US portfolio, our NPD in that area and the strength of our Californian Tasting and broking sales offer.

Highly Commended: Corporate Social Responsibility Award for the Red Nose Wines - This recognised the amazing work that the SAAM and Bibendum teams did to raise over £700,000 for Comic Relief. The winner of this category was the Co-Op (who pretty much invented CSR!)

We were also shortlisted and given honourable mention in 3 other categories: Agent of the Year, Wine List of the Year and Specialist Merchant for En Primeur.

Wines on the Bibendum table included the superb Champagne De Castellane Brut Rose, which had earlier won the Rose Champagne Trophy, as well as Petaluma Riesling, Calera Pinot Noir and Croser Brut.

Lenz Moser was there to pick up an award for top International Riesling for Prinz von Hessen Winkeler Jesuitengarten Riesling Erster Gewachs 2007 and Bibendum MD, Michael Saunders, accepted the Aglianico trophy on behalf of Bisceglia for Gudarra 2005.