Fifty years after the 1976 Judgment of Paris reshaped the global wine hierarchy, Resorts World Sentosa will host the Judgement of Singapore — a high-profile double-blind tasting designed not to replicate history but to interrogate how far wine quality and regional identity have traveled in the decades since. The flagship event of Singapore Wine Week 2026 runs October 2–4 at the integrated resort, with public results announced on the final day.

The Judging Panel

The tasting will be co-led by Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, former Editor-in-Chief of The Wine Advocate, and Ronan Sayburn MS, CEO of the Court of Master Sommeliers Europe. They head a 15-member panel drawn from 10 countries — Singapore, Australia, Belgium, Mainland China, France, India, Italy, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States — including credentialed professionals such as Julien Boulard MW MS, Ned Goodwin MW, Dr. Jackie Ang MW, Sarah Jane Evans MW, Kevin Lu MS and Kamal Malik MS. Judges will evaluate each wine without knowing its producer, label or region of origin.

"Fifty years ago, a single tasting in Paris changed how the world thought about where great wine could come from," Perrotti-Brown said. "What interests me is not who wins, but what these wines tell us, with the labels hidden, about how far quality has travelled and how much of it still comes down to place."

Format and Operator Implications

The double-blind format assesses 24 wines — 12 Chardonnays and 12 Cabernet Sauvignons from Old World and New World producers — primarily from the 2019 vintage, scored independently on five criteria: balance, intensity, complexity, ageing potential and singularity. Organizer Impeccable APAC frames the exercise as a study rather than a competition, examining how climate, soil and winemaking express themselves in the glass when brand reputation is stripped away.

For hospitality operators and beverage directors, the event carries practical resonance: growing Asian collector and trade communities are reshaping where premium wine conversations happen, and Singapore's position as a regional hub is becoming impossible to ignore. Andreas Reich, Senior Vice President of Hospitality at Resorts World Sentosa, noted that hosting the tasting "enriches our culinary offering and strengthens RWS as a destination for distinctive experiences" — a calculus more properties in Asia-Pacific are actively making as wine programming becomes a hospitality differentiator.

The surrounding Singapore Wine Week schedule underscores the commercial scale at play. The October 4 Fruits of the Vine Wine Fair — open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Resorts World Convention Centre — is expected to draw approximately 1,200 collectors, trade professionals and media across dedicated Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, New World Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir zones featuring up to 300 wines. A separate Grand Cellar Auction, running 1:30–4:30 p.m. at The Laurus, a Luxury Collection Resort, will offer rare vintages from private cellars and estates.

The event reflects a broader shift in fine wine trade activity toward Asia, where a younger, globally minded consumer base is driving demand for premium and ultra-premium bottles. As Food & Beverage Magazine has tracked, experiential wine programming — particularly formats that foreground craft and provenance over brand prestige — continues to gain traction with both trade buyers and high-net-worth collectors across the region.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.