The International Wine Challenge is on one of the worlds most influential wine competitions and the results from Tranche One have been released after four days of judging.
Highlights from the competition are as follows:
Eleven Gold medals went to variations of supermarket wines, spanning all categories bar rosé and marked a new era for supermarket wine. The fortified category was the most impressive for supermarket wines: Marks & Spencer’s bringing in two top gongs for their label Sherry and Port and Waitrose winning Gold for their Palo Cortado.
English producers have shown a massive improvement, particularly in the sparkling wines category, with England and France being the only countries to win gold in the category.
Almost 30 percent of all the competitions Gold Medals were awarded to Chardonnay wines. Australia’s non-sparkling Chardonnay even beat out the champion French variation. Other countries demonstrating innovative and quality Chardonnay wines were New Zealand, Japan and South Africa.
BBC Apprentice contestant Jackie Fast made waves in the competition. Her new ice wine brand winning a silver medal. The dessert wine was made in Canada from frozen grapes and is sold exclusively in the UK.
