Three of the world’s largest international wine competitions are held in the UK and across the year the wine calendar is divided into a delirium of sample sending, extreme tasting, result announcing and the grand finale of award dinners where the ‘super’ trophies are revealed.
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Now I’m impressed..Of the 14,000 or so wines that were entered into the competition this weeks award dinner boiled down to 28. The best of the best, the trophies of the trophy winners, and several wine producers from as far away as NZ had come to London in hope of picking up one of these exclusive gongs. As a guest of Concha y Toro we tasted through a good handful of trophy winners that had the budget to doll out extra samples for the occasion, the most notable of which were the three reds served with dinner;
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Psssstttt…. if you don’t have time to read the full article then between you and me the best red was Bodegas de Familia Burgo Viejo, Licenciado, Rioja Reserva 2006, a classy, classy example of the spicy and rich, fruity goodness found in good vintages of Rioja Reserva.
I have to admit to being slightly uncomfortable over this whole awards scene. I feel the format doesn’t let really different wines get the chance to do well: Wines which some people will love but others not are doomed not to succceed. Add to that the costs of entering and I have the feeling that only wine imported in large quantities are ever going to enter and so wine and then the UK consumer gets the idea that the wines really are the ultimate rather than being the best crowd pleaser. Rant over and I’m sure it was a fun evening. Roger