59 wines, 15 countries (with no country replicated even once in the flights) and a few big surprises; day 1 at the IWC got off to a great start! Well, I say day 1, it’s really just day 1 for myself. 20 teams of judges spent last week tasting through 80-100 wines a day, weeding out wines that weren’t in the running for a medal and making sure solidly made, interesting wines were put through to this week. Our job as judges this week is purely to re-taste those wines, assess them and decide two things:

1. Does this wine really deserve a medal?
2. If so, which medal does it deserve? Bronze (85-89pts), Silver (90-94pts) or Gold (95-100pts)?

This is theoretically how it works. In reality, whether through the organisers throwing a curve-ball or wines slipping through the cracks, I would venture that a good 10-20% of wines that are re-tasted don’t receive a medal of any sort. I’m very much in favour of this stringent approach as it means that the IWC medals actually mean something; not necessarily that you’ll like the wine, but that it’s been tasted repetitively by a number of experienced wine professionals, and has the quality required to win a medal after various rounds of potential rejection.

Below are my observations from the first day, with some interesting results. Annoyingly, there are certain elements of the tasting I can’t write here. Despite the fact that every wine is tasted blind, some are esoteric enough to be almost unique at the competition and as a result, even mentioning the style would give an indication as to how the judging is going. With that said, I will say that my main ‘wow’ moment of the day came from the most unlikely source; a certain sort of wine from a collection of islands in the Mediterranean blew us all away (if you’re thinking “He can’t surely mean XXXXXXX”, I certainly am!)

Cava – We started the day with a flight of Cava, with some very mixed results. There was a clear separation of style, with the majority of wines made from purely indigenous grapes tending towards fresh green fruits, bone-dry sugar levels and steely, mineral sensations on the palate; sometimes aggressively so. The few Cava’s that contained Chardonnay tended to have a touch of residual sugar and notably riper fruit profiles, which ran the risk of being a little too fruit-forward and obvious. Having said that, the two best wines were one from either camp, both displaying good autolytic character and balance. As a preference I err towards Brut Nature wines made from Xarel.lo, Macabeo and Parellada but it’s nice to see good examples of both.

Pinot Noir – Next up was Pinot Noir from Argentina and Uruguay. Nothing really stood out here, with the best example certainly hailing from the cooler south of Argentina. I’ve tried more than a few Argentinian Pinot Noirs in my time there, and nothing from Mendoza really caught my attention. If you get the opportunity and don’t mind splurging a little, do keep an eye out for Bodega Chacra from Patagonia; superb wines but not cheap!

Sauvignon Blanc – A flight of Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, which is a given in a UK focused wine competition. What was interesting is that the results this time echoed the results of a similar flight I did last year. The best wines were, almost without exception, from the cooler, Awatere Valley; an interesting subregion of Marlborough that seems to be able to match a cooler, less obvious fruit profile with more density and weight on the palate. I’m not a huge New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc fan but some of these wines were really very good.

Cabernet Sauvignon – Over to Stellenbosch in South Africa next where the focus was on varietal Cabernet Sauvignon. Stellenbosch is the historical capital of wine-making in South Africa and despite much attention now shifting towards the trendier producers in Swartland and Olifants River, Stellenbosch remains the home for traditional, South African wines. A real mixture of styles on show and lots of incredibly heavy bottles. The two best, a little like the Cava, were completely opposed in style. One being more ‘Old World’ in style with lighter fruits, oak and more tertiary flavours whilst the second was embryonic, hugely intense and clearly built to last. An interesting learning point here was the effects of the Fanleaf virus, a big problem in South African vineyards, on the flavour profile of the grapes. Nick Adams MW, our panel chair, was kind enough to stop and point this out to us. I’ll bear it in mind for future tastings!

Mixed whites – Hailing from Turkey, Macedonia and Bulgaria, there were more than a few grape varieties I’d never encountered before and even a few I’d never even heard of! Narince, Beylerce, Kabarcik… and various versions of Muscat, with a few clones I’d definitely never tasted before. As you might expect this was a very mixed bag, but I particularly enjoyed the bitter orange, floral character of the Narince and I will endeavour to dig into this grape variety in more depth in the future. I suspect there may well be a big quality potential there.

Emilia Romagna – After lunch it was onto Italy and a real mixture from Emilia Romagna. Sagrantino, Sangiovese and Barbera blends. Of the 7 or so we tried, none really stood out with the structure mainly outlasting the fruit, and a few of the younger wines seemingly oddly tired. I don’t drink a lot of wine from Emilia Romagna outside of the few really good Lambrusco’s they produce there, so I already had few expectations. Sangiovese Grosso, the Sangiovese clone of Brunello fame, was the most convincing.

Croatia – This was followed by 4 white wines from Croatia, with an extended skin-contact ‘amber’ wine in particular a very convincing and delicious example. Further whites from the Czech Republic and Switzerland followed, with the Czech Pinot Gris a dead ringer for a high quality wine from Alsace. Eastern Europe really does show a lot of promise at the moment, even if the wines are largely unavailable outside of their local markets.

McLaren Vale – A flight of McLaren Vale Shiraz greeted us just before the end of the day, with very mixed results. I expected the alcohol to be the main cause of distraction, with most of the wines a way above 14% ABV, but in reality it was more a question of extraction, with several of the wines missing the juicy, supple structure that makes Shiraz so moreish. The best combined the cooler fruit of the fresher sites with a supple tannic structure, peppery notes and well integrated oak. There were more than a few with a smaller component of Viognier for floral lift and this mainly worked well, although the worst examples were overly confected and perfumed as a result.

I’m very much looking forward to day II! As you can see, the flights are so mixed and the tasting so broad, it’s impossible to predict what’s coming next. A competition that keeps you on your toes and really stretches your tasting experience.