London Wine Fair has announced it will be putting Chardonnay under the microscope for this year’s Icon Tasting, with organisers unveiling ‘The Greatest Chardonnay Showdown’ as this year’s theme.

The tasting will take place on the opening day of the fair (18 May) at Kensington Olympia, where once again, competing wines will be pitted against each other in a ‘battle of the bands’ style tasting.

Previous themes include the inaugural ‘Judgement of London’ in 2024 and ‘Battle of the Bubbles’ in 2025, where wines were judged blind by a panel of expert tasters.

As in previous years, the selection has been curated by Sarah Abbott MW and Ronan Sayburn MS: a total of 30 Chardonnays from around the world will be assessed in a double-blind tasting. Wines will be grouped by factors such as style, terroir, winemaking technique and oak influence, with judging conducted under strict conditions across a three-hour session.

Confirmed judges include Jancis Robinson, Oz Clarke and Pierpaolo Petrassi. Results will identify standout performers across several categories, including Overall Greatest Chardonnay, Top 10 wines, Best Classic Region, Best Emerging Region and Best Value, based on points per £ RRP.

Head of London Wine Fair, Hannah Tovey, described the tasting format as “an eagerly anticipated fixture in the wine industry”, which shines “a spotlight on the world’s finest wines, as judged by the UK’s finest palates”. 

Abbott commented: “Our first challenge has been narrowing the selection. Chardonnay is the lingua franca of fine white wine, and even our long-list read like a kind of poem. I know that our judges will relish tasting and assessing these iconic wines.”

“Great Chardonnay doesn’t just reflect where it’s from – it reveals how it tastes when the winemaker’s judgement and precision balances the climate, soils and techniques to make the wines come together in a single glass,” Sayburn added.

London Wine Fair 2026 will run from 18 to 20 May at Olympia. The findings of the 2026 Icon Tasting will be revealed on 20 May at 11.45am on the fair’s Centre Stage.