# Which medal a product shows, and why

For Adam, from rian's build, Saturday 5 September 2026. One page, no code. Published on
the review page (`/discuss`, under "For your comment") for your answer.

## The problem

Many bottles carry several medals. Santa Teresa 1796, for example, holds eight in our data:
Berlin every year from 2020 to 2024, New York in 2024 and 2025, and Asia in 2019. A product
card has room for one medal in its corner, and a product page for a few. We need a rule you
can explain to a brand in one breath, and the same rule has to give the same answer every
time the site is rebuilt.

## The rules

1. **Nothing is thrown away.** Every medal we match stays in the record, and every medal
   that appears on the page also goes into the page's structured data, which is what Google
   and the AI assistants read.

2. **Each competition shows its latest result.** Older medals from the same competition step
   back off the page. Santa Teresa 1796 shows three medals: Berlin 2024 Gold, New York 2025
   Gold and Asia 2019 Silver. The Berlin medals from 2020 to 2023 do not show. A medal is one
   year's judging; the latest one is the brand's current standing, and it rewards the brands
   that keep entering.

3. **One medal leads.** The card corner and the top of the product page carry the highest
   level among those latest results: Double Gold, then Gold, Silver, Bronze.

4. **Ties break in a fixed order.** The more recent year first. Then the competition closest
   to the traveller's chosen airports: a traveller passing through JFK sees the New York
   medal, a traveller through Hong Kong, Singapore or Seoul sees the Asia medal, Melbourne and
   Berlin the same when those airports join. Then the higher judges' score. Then the
   competition name alphabetically, so a visitor who has chosen no airports always sees the
   same medal on the same bottle. Santa Teresa 1796 leads with New York 2025 Gold: two Golds
   tie on level, and 2025 is the more recent.

5. **A person can pin a different medal.** A pin names the competition, the year and the
   medal, not an internal number, so it survives every re-import of the competition data. If
   the pinned medal ever stops matching the bottle, the automatic choice takes over and the
   case goes on a review list instead of silently showing the wrong thing.

6. **A medal we cannot place with confidence is not shown.** Medals are matched to retail
   products by brand and bottling, since the competition data has no barcodes. When two
   different entries land on the same bottle in the same competition and year, we show
   neither rather than guess. A missing medal is a smaller harm than a medal on the wrong
   bottle.

## A proposal: medals age

Rian's idea from the board comments. A medal older than a year (from before last year's
judging) fades on the listing pages: it no longer takes the card corner, though it still
shows on the product page with its year, and it stays in the structured data. Santa Teresa's
Asia 2019 Silver would fade; the 2024 and 2025 Golds would not.

For it: the shelf shows current form, and a brand that skips a season sees its medal step
back, which is an argument for entering again. Against it: a strong result from two or three
years ago disappears from the browse pages even when the brand has no newer one.

This is your call. It is a single switch, and we build with it **off** until you say
otherwise.

## What we need from you

1. A yes to rules 1 to 6, or the changes you want.
2. Aging on or off at launch.
3. One thing to know before you answer rule 2: if you would rather the best medal ever won
   stayed on the page instead of the latest one per competition, say so. It is a small change
   for us, but it changes what brands see, so it should be your decision, not ours.

Reply in the thread on the review page, or tell rian. We proceed with the rules as written
and aging off until we hear.