(Wines&Vines) - The Wines & Vines Packaging Design Awards are expanding this year, accepting entries from all interested North American wineries. Wine packages will be judged by a panel of wine and design industry professionals, and awards will be presented at the third annual Wines & Vines Packaging Conference on Aug. 17.

The deadline for entries is July 15. In its first year, the awards included packages entered by wine industry suppliers who produced them for winery clients. This year the call for entries has expanded, and any winery or supplier may enter a package they have produced.

Eligible packages can be a bottle, box, can, keg or other type of container. The package must contain wine and must be or have been publicly available for sale between the dates of Aug. 1, 2014, and July 31, 2016, since the awards are for current packages.

On the supplier side, the judging invites both the most appealing and the most technically innovative packages. The technical innovation category will highlight the points of interest in each entry that best serve the wine’s style goals, freshness preservation, serving size, ease of use by consumer, bottling/filling needs or oxygen requirements.

Packages will be examined by a jury of veteran designers, winery executives, packaging experts, wine retailers and other wine professionals.