IWSC announces first release of 2019 winners with a spotlight on producers from the northern hemisphere.
Click here to see the medal winners
The first medal winners in the 2019 IWSC awards has proved to be particularly successful for Canadian, Chinese and English producers as they were amongst those to pick up Gold medals.
There was also a first gold medal for a Croatian wine, the Opg Pilato Malvazija sur lie 2015, which is a white wine made from one of Croatia’s oldest and most well-known indigenous grapes, Malvazija. It was described by judges as “evolving and opening in the glass all the time; the lovely minerality and beautiful texture carry the big but elegant palate to a grand finale.”
China’s emergence as respected wine producing country in its own right continued with its fine wine region, Ningxia, being awarded two Gold medals. One for
The northern hemisphere medals do not include wines from excluding France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, who were all be judged and announced separately. But they do cover wines from Asia, Eurasia, the Middle East, Europe, and North and Central America.
Canada picked up 12 Gold medals, five for icewine producers and seven for still wines, of which two were for Chardonnay wines, one Shiraz, one Cabernet Sauvignon, and three Bordeaux blends.
Four of the five English Gold medals went to sparking wine, including one for Steven Spurrier’s Bride Valley Rose Bella 2014, the fifth was won by a dry wine, the Woodchester Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2018, from Gloucestershire in South West England.
Napa’s Grgich Hills performed well in the IWSC awards
Top-performing producers include Napa Valley’s Grgich Hills Estate which received two Silver medals for Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay wines, Divino Nordheim Thüngersheim eG from Germany, which was awarded three Gold and six Silver medals, and Estate Argyros from Greece, which won awards for all of its wines entered, totalling two Gold and three Silver medals.
A selection of the Gold medal winners were available to taste on the IWSC stand at this week’s IWSC.
The IWSC was established in 1969 and now receives entries from 90 countries.
