Review & Marketing Services by Beverage Testing Institute

2026 Packaging Design Competition

Beverage Testing Institute evaluates thousands of wine, beer and spirits each year. At the end of the year, we give our palates a break and feast our eyes on the beautiful packaging created by designers and brand teams. Never judge a book by its cover isn’t a viable mantra in 2025 where it’s often eye-catching design and unique bottle shape that drive sales.

Products will be evaluated and awarded on a 100-point scale by our panelists. Award winners will be featured in the BevTest Packaging Design Compendium (take a look at last year's Compendium here): A digital, “coffee-table” book filled with lustrous bottle shots, in-depth bios and the contact info of the designers and creative agencies. Participants are encouraged to add the compendium to their own arsenal of marketing materials and portfolios. Beverage Testing Institute will send out the Packaging Design Compendium to its entire database of wine, beer and spirits brands, getting your creative agency in front of thousands of decision-makers.

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We’ve streamlined the Packaging Design submissions categories for 2026. Please reach out to support@bevtest.com with any questions about your entries.

 

PACKAGE $220/entry

 

SERIES $330/entry (LABEL SERIES OR CASE SERIES) A set of labels or cases designed to work as a cohesive unit effectively communicating the designer or brand packaging goal.

Design samples and submissions due: November 1st, 2025



Results published on Tastings.com: January 16, 2026

 

 

Rules of Entry & More

 

  • All products must be commercially available in any country at the time of publication, liquid must be the same as that which is currently in-market.
  • No results will be released or published without payment.
  • 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.
  • All submissions that have been reviewed by the panel will be published on tastings.com, no exceptions.
  • Not recommended reviews will have a private review page on tastings.com, that is not searchable, nor found by search engines. A link will be sent to the client to see the panel's critique.
  • Wine and Beer category results are released 45 days from their submission deadline.
  • Spirits category results are released 60 days from their submission deadline.
  • Priority results are released and published 15 days after receipt of product.
  • Rush results are released and published 5 business days after receipt of product.
  • Private consulting results are released to the client 30 days from receipt of product and clients are given the option to publish and license the results.
  • We publish the most current review for a given Spirit, RTD, Beer, or FMB so that our audience knows the quality level of the brand currently in the market

 

Usage Policy

 

  • We do not accept sponsorship or advertising from any alcoholic beverage brand.
  • Participation in BevTest’s tastings and competitions is completely voluntary.
  • Use of unauthorized copies or approximations of BevTest’s logos for any purpose is not allowed.
  • All uses of BevTest’s name and content in press releases must be approved by BevTest prior to dissemination.
  • You may submit a press release featuring our name, reviews, and awards, or any trade print ads featuring our results and logo, by sending it to us at support@bevtest.com for approval.
  • 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.
  • If you wish to license our category results or review content, contact us at consulting@bevtest.com No scraping or indexing allowed, violators will be punished.

We’ve streamlined the Packaging Design submissions categories for 2026. Submissions are open to all packaging design for beverage alcohol. Please reach out to support@bevtest.com with any questions about your entries. 

 

PACKAGE: $220/entry

 

SERIES: $330/entry  (LABEL SERIES OR CASE SERIES)
A set of labels or cases designed to work as a cohesive unit effectively communicating the designer or brand packaging goal. 

 

Items submitted should be physical items - we do not accept digital entries at this time. If you are submitting a product that's part of a bottle, such as a label, please send the complete product as it would appear on a retail shelf, not just the label (for example).

Your design sample must be submitted and received by 11/15/2025. Results will be published on 1/16/2025.

Panelists will be considering the merits of each product’s aesthetic appeal and ability to function perform well in on and off-premise accounts.

Creativity  Fresh and original concepts and execution

Graphic Design  Images, text, and arrangement thereof

Form  Shape, texture, and mass

Style  Relationship of the package elements to the character of the products and its projected image

 Function –Visual aesthetic is heavily considered but so Is real life application on retail shelves, back bars etc. The aethetic should work in tandem with utility.

 

All packaging design submissions are evaluated on a 100-point scale. In addition to a score and correlating BevTest award medal, the following categories will have a “Best Category” accolade:

 

- labels (paper, embossed, deco)

- vessels (glass bottles, boxes, pouches, cans)

- cases

- gift boxes

- carriers

- novelty accessories

- glassware

- tap handles

- series

 

* BevTest’s Points-to-Medals conversion scale:

  • 96-100 - Superlative (Platinum Medal)
  • 90-95 - Exceptional (Gold Medal)
  • 85-89 - Highly Recommended (Silver Medal)
  • 80-84 - Recommended (Bronze Medal)
  • 79/NR - Not Recommended (No Medal)