Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships 2024 Medal Results

The medal winners of the 2024 Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships (CSWWC) have been revealed, with a total of 167 gold and 229 silver medals awarded this year.

Now in its 11th edition, the CSWWC received close to 1,000 sparkling wines from 20 countries, that were judged over 11 days at Goodnestone Park in Kent, England.

Italy once again dominated the rankings, securing 70 gold and 123 silver medals. France followed closely with 55 golds and 36 silvers. Australia claimed third place, trailed by Spain, with the UK rounding out the top five.

“We were thrilled with the quality of the whole range of wines that we tasted this year,” said judge Essi Avellan MW. “This has been another great year for results, once again demonstrating how exciting the sparkling wine industry is. It is not only the CSWWC’s mission to promote world class wines, but also to discover and reward new and exciting wines from established and emerging regions across the world!”

The Best in Class and trophy winners will be revealed at this year’s CSWWC awards dinner on October 24th in London.

Medal winners are found here: https://www.champagnesparklingwwc.co.uk/results-2024/

Source: www.champagnesparklingwwc.co.uk/

Concours Mondial de Bruxelles – Guanajuato, Mexico – Key Highlights

I was trilled to participate in the prestigious Concours Mondial de Bruxelles in Guanajuato, Mexico, just two months ago!

Some key points:
The wines were blind-tasted by wine trade, including buyers, journalists, wine merchants, and oenologists, who were selected by the CMB, representing 45 nationalities.
We tasted over 7,500 red and white wines from 42 countries.

🥇🥈 Full results can be found here: concoursmondial.com

Concours Mondial de Bruxelles Announces Results of its 2024 Red and White Session

The 31st edition of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles wrapped up last week in Guanajuato. The results are officially announced, with the host country, Mexico, breaking into the top 5 in terms of the number of medals won. China is also making a strong showing with significant progress, and South Africa continues its upward trend.

Uruguay and Romania have taken the two major international revelations with a red wine and a white wine, respectively. The winners include wines from all five continents, encompassing both historical wine-producing countries and some more surprising origins like Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, and Peru.

Here are the Revelations:

From June 7 to 9, the world’s largest traveling wine competition brought together experts from across the international wine sector in Guanajuato, Mexico, to taste nearly 7,500 red and white wines from 42 countries. All wines were blind tasted by a panel of wine experts (buyers, journalists, wine merchants, oenologists, etc.) carefully selected by the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, representing 45 nationalities. Of all the wines presented, only 30% will take home a medal.

“It is a real satisfaction to have gathered so many wines for this new edition despite a challenging global context. It proves that producers still want to place their trust in us, and we are honored by it!” said Thomas Costenoble, director of the CMB.

International Revelations
The highest-scoring white wine of this year’s competition is the Issa Chardonnay Barrique 2022 – a Romanian white wine produced in Transylvania by Crama La Salina. The highest-rated red wine comes from Uruguay – the Balasto 2017 produced by Everest Wines and Spirits.

The “No Low” Revelations
One of the new features of this 2024 edition was the creation of the Revelations for the best no-low wines (completely or partially de-alcoholized wines, de-alcoholized wine-based beverages, and others). The winners are Divin – Sauvignon Blanc 0.0% 2023 from Divin No-Low in Loire (France) and the Portuguese “Lower alcohol” wine Lagosta from Enopnort Wines.

Organic and wooded Revelations
The Sylvain Trophy, awarded each year to the highest-scoring wooded wine, goes in 2024 to an Italian wine, Starderi 2020 from Collina Serragrilli. The highest-rated organic wine is from Spain for the second consecutive year: this time, it is a wine from Navarra, Arínzano Merlot Agricultura Biológica 2019 produced by Arinzano.

Bordeaux in the lead
Among the major French wine-producing regions, Bordeaux is the most represented and rewarded region in the competition with 189 medal-winning wines. Gironde also takes home the French Red Wine Revelation with Château Terres Blanches Cuvée Carpe Diem 2022. Another Grand Gold Medal goes to a Bordeaux wine, Château Le Bonalguet Cosecha 2023 from Bonalgue Saint-Germain.

China and Mexico stand out, South Africa progresses
These three nations continue to demonstrate their dynamism in the numbers. Of the 663 wines presented by Mexican producers, 152 won medals (including 9 Grand Gold Medals), a record. South African wines continue to improve in quality with a significant increase in the number of Grand Gold Medals (6) and Gold Medals (35). As for China, no less than 40% of the wines presented won a medal, including 6 Grand Gold Medals and 83 Gold Medals!

This sets the stage for the next Red & White Wines Session of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, which will take place in June 2025 in Ningxia, China. It will be the second time the Concours is held in China, following the 2018 edition.

The results can be found here: https://results.concoursmondial.com/en/results/2024

Source: www.concoursmondial.com/

The Association of Wine Educators published their 2024 edition of 100 AWEsome Wines

The Association of Wine Educators just published their 2024 edition of 100 AWEsome Wines. Here is how the wines made the list:

Each member of the AWE nominated and rated wines to be part of this list. The wine could be a great example of a classic style, a new discovery, or simply a wine that they really enjoyed. Value for money is the bedrock of the wines on the list.

The 100 AWEsome Wines List: https://www.100awesomewines.com

Source: The Association of Wine Educators

Radici del Sud 2023 – That’s a wrap – Part I

Radici del Sud 2023

I was part of the International Jury – Group 1, which was chaired by Luca Matarazzo (20italie.com), and includes Anais Cancino (Wineteller, Mexico), Liz Palmer (wine journalist, author and influencer, Canada), Torge Thies (TRCT MEDIEN GmbH, Germany), and Anthony Rose (Decanter, freelance wine journalist and author, UK).

Our group just finished two intense days of blind tasting sparkling, rose, white and red wines of southern Italy at the beautiful medieval castle  Sannicandro di Bari. I’m happy to report that there were a lot of exciting wines this year.

Radici Del Sud is a two-day multi-event dedicated to wines in southern Italy which includes the wine competition, and B2B meetings between buyers and international importers [10-11 June].

Part II to follow