Wine Competition Award Winners for 2012 announced
Winners were announced this week at the London International Wine Fair for the IWSC Northern Hemisphere wines, the Decanter World Wine Awards and the International Wine Challenge.
For the 2012 International Wine and Spirit Awards (IWSC) over 200 wine merchants, sommeliers and journalists, including 54 Masters of Wine and 11 Master Sommeliers, took part judging thousands of wines to decide on the winners from the Northern Hemisphere.
Once again, it was France who swept the board winning a total of 827 medals. Four of these were Gold Outstanding medals (formerly Best in Class) - one of which was awarded to Tesco Finest Premier Cru Champagne produced by Union Champagne. In 2nd place was Italy with 621 medals followed by Spain with 509 medals.
And, just to prove it's not only French or expensive wines, that are considered the world's best - Aldi's Toro Loco Tempranillo 2011 won a silver medal and retails at just £3.59 a bottle!
In the Decanter World Wine Awards the majority of entrants are from well known wine regions, but the Decanter say they also champion lesser known and smaller wine regions. Whilst Greece may be best known for its Retsina the wine industry has been steadily excelling - 72% of its entries won an award this year with 5 gold medals. Newcomers Turkey, Croatia and Slovenia also picked up a good number of awards and Chinese wines won one Gold medal, two Silver, 10 Bronze and five Commended, almost doubling their medals from last year.
The UK entered 97 wines into the Decanter awards and 89% won medals with Bolney Estate winning a Gold Outstanding for its Blanc de Blancs 2007. The Decanter Trophy winners will be announced at the 5 September awards dinner.
Meanwhile in the International Wine Challenge (IWC) two golds were awarded to English sparkling wines - Ridgeview for their 100% Chardonnay Marksman 2009 - an exclusive for M&S - and Camel Valley's Cornwall Brut 2010. The IWC Trophy winners Awards Dinner is a week later than Decanter's on 11th September.
