Surprising Wins for new Wine Producing Countries in IWSC

LONDON, May 18, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Wine producers who have capitalised on the recent growth in wine markets in the Far East may find local competition intensifying as wineries from these areas start to get recognised for the quality of their domestic production. China has gained several awards in the UK's most prestigious independent wine competition, The International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC), with two silvers and a bronze for wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay grapes. Japan also improved on its handful of medals in 2009 with an impressive six silvers and 25 bronze medals.

Other surprises included a bronze medal for the first ever release from a new Welsh winery, a bronze going to the Ancre Hill Estates in the Wye valley, and a silver (best in class) for the Eglantine Vineyard North Star from Nottinghamshire. English sparkling wine missed out on gold this year but picked up ten silvers (best in class), two silvers and five bronzes, slightly down on last year's haul of twenty medals.

Competition director Frances Horder comments, "What this year's results highlight more than ever is that great wine can be made anywhere in the world so wineries need to make a greater effort to stand out from the pack. An award from an internationally recognised independent competition such as The IWSC can help get a foot in the door of a major importer or give consumers the reassurance they need to pick a wine off a shelf."

The big wins were concentrated in the traditional wine producing regions of the 'old world' with impressive results for Champagne with 20 golds, closely followed by Spain which scooped 23 golds, with Rioja outperforming all other regions with six gold medals, 72 silver and 57 bronzes, indicating solid performance across the board from top end Reservas to competitively priced Crianzas. Germany showed that it deserves greater recognition for quality wine by coming in third with 21 golds, putting it inline with Italy which got 16 gold 'best in class' and 5 gold medals.

Editors' notes:

The International Wine and Spirit Competition was founded in 1969 and is the premier competition of its kind in the world. Its aim is to promote the quality and excellence of the world's best wines, spirits and liqueurs. All entries of wines, spirits and liqueurs are blind tasted in groups divided by variety, region and vintage as necessary. Awards are made on a points system and sponsored trophies are presented in selected categories.

Technical analysis is carried out on Gold, Gold (Best in Class), Silver (Best in Class) award winning wines, spirits and liqueurs to ensure that all products are technically sound and will be of the same high quality when they reach the consumer as they were when the judging panels originally tasted them.

The IWSC is supported by a group of Vice Presidents made up of some of the most influential men and women in the trade, including Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, Miguel Torres, Marchese Piero Antinori, Robert Drouhin, Paul Symington, May de Lencquesaing, Gina Gallo, Rafael Guilisasti and this year's IWSC President, Prince Michael zu Salm-Salm, of the distinguished and most venerated Salm-Dalberg family.

For more information on the competition please visit http://www.iwsc.net

Full results are available from 11am Tuesday 18 May from the IWSC stand (T20) at the London International Wine Fair

SOURCE The International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC)