Monday, 28th September 2026 The National Off-Licence Association (NOffLA) has awarded its annual Irish Wine Show Star Awards 2026 to 25 wines this evening. Now in its 25th year, the event was hosted at Fallon & Byrne in Dublin 2. The winning wines from the Irish Wine Show Star Awards will be available to consumers from NOffLA outlets across Ireland. Founded in 1991, NOffLA represents independent, specialist off-licences across Ireland, representing 5,900 jobs across all 26 counties.
Banning Loyalty Card Prices on Alcohol Products
NOffLA welcomes the Minister for Health’s decision last week to ban retailers from offering discounted prices on alcohol products through the use of loyalty cards from March 2028. This is directly in line with the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 (Sale and Supply of Alcohol Products) and outlaws unfair trading practices that small off-licences cannot compete with.
High alcohol excise putting Irish retailers at risk
At the event, NOffLA highlighted the strong concern among its members that Ireland continues to levy the second highest excise duty on wine across the EU and UK. The Association said it hopes to see a reduction in excise duty as part of Budget 2027, which would help ease the high cost burdens experienced by many independent off-licences over the past year.
Speaking at the Awards, Cathal McHugh, Chairman of NOffLA, said: “We are delighted to honour the outstanding wines that NOffLA members sell across the country, with wines from Europe, South Africa and South America dominating the winning categories.”
Mc Hugh continued; "We are encouraged by the Government's recent openness to an excise reduction in Budget 2027. NOffLA is calling for a 10% cut, given the pressure high excise places on small, independent off-licences nationwide. Ireland has the second-highest alcohol excise in the EU and UK, with wine excise 5.7 times that of Belgium and 2.8 times that of Denmark. NOffLA supports an all-island approach to Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP), indexed to inflation. With MUP in place, Ireland's punitive excise levels can no longer be justified on public health grounds."
Continued engagement on licensing reform and distance selling
On licensing reform, regarding the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022 and the Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2024. NOffLA continues to engage directly with the Government on licensing, particularly on provisions governing online and distance alcohol sales.
Renewed call for an EU approach to labelling regulations
NOffLA also addressed the government’s decision to postpone the implementation of mandatory alcohol health warning labels, until September 2028 under section 12 of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018. While NOffLA welcomed the postponement, they also renewed their call for Ireland to align its approach with the EU to avoid placing unnecessary burdens on the Irish drinks industry.
McHugh concluded: “We welcome the delay to the implementation of the Alcohol Labelling regulations under the Public Health (Alcohol) Act. However, we continue to call for the Government to follow a harmonised EU approach to alcohol labelling. A coordinated European framework would prevent Irish businesses being placed at a competitive disadvantage compared to their European counterparts and ensure consistency across the Single Market.”
Winners of the Irish Wine Star Awards 2026
In excess of 600 wines were submitted to the Star Award adjudication panel of NOffLA judges and independent wine journalists. Points were awarded on the basis of appearance, smell, taste and value for money criteria, and the winning 25 were selected as the best wines from key suppliers across a number of price categories.
Each of the winning wines will be sold in NOffLA member outlets across the country and will be recognisable by distinctive Award symbols on each bottle. In the pre-Christmas period NOffLA members will promote the Irish Wine Show Star Awards 2026-2027 Collection as ideal Christmas gifts, in a variety of special gift packs.