Australia storms to victory in IWSC competition |
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| Written by Claire Weekes | |
| Tuesday, 30 September 2008 | |
Australia took pole position at today's annual International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC), scooping a total of 34 awards. Australia's 34 wins left it way out in front of joint second place winners South Africa and France, who took home 19 awards each. New Zealand was the next highest scorer with 11 gold awards. The IWSC said that stringent judging meant only 107 gold medals were awarded across all wine entries worldwide this year. Allen Gibbons, executive director of the IWSC says: "Less than 2% of our wine entries attained gold as we are particularly thorough in our judging, which is carried out using pre-poured blind flights by style. "Our judges include 40 masters of wine, 30 winemakers and key industry players such as master blender Richard Paterson. Whether the triumphant lines are famous brands or new discoveries, we are confident that the decisions reached by our panels are borne of both expertise and impartiality." Twenty-three trophies were also announced. South Africa picked up five, including The Mission Hill Trophy for best Chardonnay, which went to family owned Delheim Wines for its Chardonnay Sur Lie 2007. New Zealand and Australia both picked up three trophies, with the inaugural presentation of The Jancis Robinson Riesling Trophy going to Peter Lehmann Wines, of the Barossa, for its Reserve Riesling 2002. In the tough contest to find the best dessert wine from around the world, the Colaruotolo family of Casa Larga Vineyards in New York State triumphed with its exotically packaged Fiori Vidal Ice Wine 2005. All three trophies for champagne or champagne style wines were produced by P & C Heidsieck, including two own-label lines by Waitrose, which won both the vintage and non-vintage champagne trophies for the Waitrose Vintage Champagne 2002 and Waitrose Blanc de Noirs NV. IWSC competition director, Frances Horder, adds: "The achievers in this year's competition were often little known producers such as Moppity Vineyards from the Hilltops region in Australia which entered only one wine; a shiraz that took gold (Best in Class) and which was also short-listed for the Shiraz trophy, which ultimately went to Trentham Estate, from Victoria. "Other discoveries were the wines of Casa Madero in Mexico, which took an astonishing six of the nine medals awarded to Mexican entries. I say 'discovery' but at over 400 years old, I guess Casa Madero winery has been around long enough to know how to make a good wine. Clearly not all new world wines are new." The IWSC is the only wine competition in the UK which works with producers on an extended judging schedule to allow those in the Southern hemisphere to submit their samples after the current year's harvest. The approach has been well received by winemakers, and has resulted in wines from 2008 taking awards. Trophies will be presented to the winners at a ceremony at London's Guildhall on 17 November. Did Australia deserve the most praise from the IWSC? Have your say below or on our forum area. Related Articles
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