Wine competition
Encyclopedia
A wine competition is an organized event in which trained judges or consumers competitively rate different vintages or bands of wine
. There are two types of wine competitions, both of which use blind tasting of wine to prevent bias by the judges.
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
. There are two types of wine competitions, both of which use blind tasting of wine to prevent bias by the judges.
Types of wine competition
The most common form of wine competition is intended to obtain valid comparisons of wines by trained experts. The awards are given to groups of wines in various categories on the basis of the blind tasting. The awards are frequently bronze, silver, gold, and double gold medals. However, ribbons of various colors are also sometimes used.These competitions often include a "Best of Class" award, producing a clear category winner among those vintages awarded a gold medal, for example the Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition. The other form of competition is most often organized by wine lovers and is consumer-oriented. The judges also evaluate the wines blind. However, instead of giving numerous awards, the wines are ranked by number from high to low in each wine category, a process known as ordinal ranking. Thus, there is only one first place winner, one second place, one third place, and so on down to the lowest place.Wine competitions
There are critics who argue that the results of such competitions may be misleading and should not be relied upon as a measure of quality. Other commentators argue that, because of wine competitions, wine quality has improved in many countries around the world.- World Wine Competition: A segment of the Worlds Largest Beverage Competition, the World Wine Competition was created in 1991 to celebrate the creation of the World Trade Organization.
- International Wine and Spirit CompetitionInternational Wine and Spirit CompetitionThe International Wine & Spirit Competition is an annual wine competition founded in 1969 by the [German/British] oenologist Anton Massel.. Each year the competition receives entries from over 80 countries worldwide. The awards given by the competition are considered to be some of the highest...
: 300 experts, considered to be the oldest and most prestigious wine and spirit competition in the world - International Wine ContestInternational Wine ContestThe International Wine Contest of Brussels is organized annually by Monde Selection, an international quality institute. This wine competition is one of the oldest worldwide as it has been established in 1961.- Jury/Judges :...
: A competition organized in Brussels by Monde SelectionMonde SelectionMonde Selection, created in 1961, is an international and independent quality institute located in Brussels, that tastes and tests consumer products in order to grant them a renowned Quality Label...
, an international quality institute. - New York Wine Tasting of 1973New York Wine Tasting of 1973The New York Wine Tasting of 1973 was organized by pioneering alcohol journalist Robert Lawrence Balzer. He assembled 14 leading wine experts including France’s Alexis Lichine, who owned two Chateaux in Bordeaux, a manager of the Four Seasons restaurant in New York City, and Sam Aaron, a prominent...
: Fourteen experts, including France’s Alexis LichineAlexis LichineAlexis Lichine was a Russian wine writer and entrepreneur. He played a key role in promoting varietal labelling of wine, was a masterful salesman of wine, and owned Château Prieuré-Lichine and a share of Château Lascombes in the Médoc. He was married to actress Arlene Dahl from 1964 to...
, ranked 23 Chardonnays from France, California, and New York State. - Paris Wine Tasting of 1976: This notable wine competition known as the "Judgment of Paris". The tasting was repeated at the San Francisco Wine Tasting of 1978 and at the tenth anniversary Wine Spectator Wine Tasting of 1986 and French Culinary Institute Wine Tasting of 1986
- Concours Mondial de BruxellesConcours Mondial de BruxellesConcours Mondial de Bruxelles created in 1994, labeled the “wine world-championship” with 6000 participating products from the four continents, these samples represent more than 500 million marketed bottles...
“wine world-championship” with more than 6000 participating products from the four continents. As a whole, these samples represent more than 500 million marketed bottles. - Wine OlympicsWine OlympicsA Wine Olympics was organized by the French food and wine magazine GaultMillau in 1979; a total of 330 wines from 33 countries were evaluated by 62 experts from ten nationalities. The 1976 Trefethen Vineyards Chardonnay from the Napa Valley won the Chardonnay tasting and was judged best in the...
(1979): A French food and wine magazine organized a competition of 330 wines from 33 countries evaluated by 62 experts. - Great Chardonnay ShowdownGreat Chardonnay ShowdownThe Great Chardonnay Showdown, held in the spring of 1980, was organized by Craig Goldwyn, the wine columnist for the Chicago Tribune newspaper and the founder of the Beverage Testing Institute, with help from three Chicago wine stores. A total of 221 Chardonnays from around the world were selected...
(1980): A total of 221 Chardonnays from around the world were evaluated by 25 judges. - Grand European Jury Wine Tasting of 1997Grand European Jury Wine Tasting of 1997In the Grand European Jury Wine Tasting of 1997, the Grand Jury Européen, consisting entirely of European judges, conducted a blind tasting of 27 Chardonnay wines from seven countries. Held in Bordeaux , 70 percent of the entries in the wine competition were from France...
: European jury tasted three vintages (1989, 1992 and 1994) of 27 Chardonnays from seven countries. - The Tasting that Changed the Wine World: 'The Judgment of Paris' 30th Anniversary. A 30-year anniversary replication of the 1976 Paris competition.
See also
- Globalization of wineGlobalization of wine"Globalization is the expansion of brands across nations and into other continents. In food and wine it refers to the whole problem of making the product global. The primary issue is scaling production while reducing the costs of goods with processes. In marketing it refers to wearing the mantle of...
- Vertical and horizontal wine tasting
- Food and Drink competitionsFood competition-Food competitions – Drink competitions:Food or drink competitions reward products primarily for their gustative worth in the form of an award or a medal. These competitions can be classified into different categories. Most awards are product-specific such as for wines, beers, and cheeses. Others...