 The wine testing results are in – the sediment has had time to settle. And, as 2003 draws to a close, it is highly gratifying to report that The International Wine Challenge, promoted as the “world’s biggest blind tasting” of quality wines from around the world, was conducted on British terroir. More precisely, the prestigious event, dubbed the “Wine Oscars” drew to a heady close at the City of London’s Barbican Centre on September 4th, 2003. The black-tie gala dinner was the culmination of several months’ tasting of around 10,000 wines by some of the most experienced palates from across the globe. Finally the coveted titles including Winemaker of the Year, Merchant of the Year and a new award entitled the Pinot Gris Trophy were awarded amid a fanfare of vinous excellence.
Judges consisted of more than 400 members of the international wine trade, including at least 40 Masters of Wines, renowned winemakers and senior wine buyers – a daunting jury, to say the least!
A mind-boggling list of grape types was sampled, from Assyrtiko to Zweigelt, not to mention a strong presence of the classic, international grape varieties. Practically every wine-growing region of the world was represented, as well winemaking styles ranging from traditional to new technology.
A total of 43 countries were represented, including Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, South Africa, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus, North America and of course, the United Kingdom. And, at the risk of serious omission, it is impossible to do justice to the numerous fine entries from some of the lesser-known wine-growing regions of world. Suffice it to say that worthy exhibits were out there battling with the “bigs”, notably from countries such as Algeria, Israel and Japan. Lebanon, too, is definitely a country to keep an eye on, in 2004, as indeed is Venezuela.
In the first round of the competition, which took place earlier this year, a staggering 40,000 plus bottles were entered for assessment. “Superjurors” were elected from the most experienced tasters present to ensure consistency of judging and to eliminate subjectivity.
Between 1,000 and 1,500 wines were blind tasted, each day, by the various panels of tasters. Judges were told which style of wine they were sampling and were also permitted to ask for information about the vintage; otherwise they were left in the dark regarding grape variety and country of origin. Each wine had to be scored out of 20, with those scoring higher than 15.5 points going on to the second stage of the competition. Wines failing to meet the 15.5 benchmark were double-checked by superjurors to make sure that a little treasure had not slipped through the net, before being rejected. Then, the final round of the competition was judged by a “grand jury” of superjurors.
And, with the season of peace on earth and goodwill to all men, upon us, it’s good to know that the International Wine Challenge had a happy ending. As entrants were required to submit 4 to 6 bottles of each wine, there was an inevitable surplus of unopened bottles left over, at the end of the competition. The Challenge saw fit to donate a whopping £10,000 worth of wine to the Wine & Spirit Trades Benevolent Society, as well a hundreds of cases to a number of charities, including the British Red Cross, Barnardo’s, Lifeboats, Chichester Diocesan Association, The Cae Dai Trust, The Lady Taverners, The Enfield Winemakers, Knowles Tooth Children’s Centre, and other various charitable organisations.
No doubt, a good time was had by all! But, it is now time for further analysis, as we anticipate the 2004 vintages from some of the top wine-growing regions of the world
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