The International Wine Challenge (IWC) and Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) have become two of the most important wine competitions in the world. April sees a frantic, two week judging fest, where hundreds of the world’s top tasters convene to taste tens of thousands of wines. Trophies, Gold, Silver and Bronze medals are awarded, commendations are given and the net result is a snapshot of what the wine trade thinks of a large set of wines. The wines have to be commercially available in reasonable quantities and not every wine in the world is judged – only a very small proportion. It does give a strong, third party endorsement of any wine and certainly my experience of these wines has been very positive, both in an immediate short term drinking perspective as well as top medal winners that I have laid down and waited a few years to drink. The results come out in May but Decanter magazine does a big spread in September and a number of the very highest accolade wines are announced then as well.
One particular wine that stands out is Soave La Rocca 2011 Pieropan @ £23.00. Every year this wine wins a Trophy or Gold Medal and has already sold out. The 2012 is already getting rave reviews so I buy it and sit on it so when no-one else can get it……
