The 10th September saw the International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC) announce its Beautiful South wine results at the Wines of the Beautiful South, London Olympia.
A strong performance was seen by South Africa, as they topped the Beautiful South medal leader board with an impressive 632 medals. Eight Gold Outstanding medals were awarded in the competition, South Africa picked up seven of these as well as 29 Gold. Highlights include leading wine and spirit producer KWV picking up 22 medals and Nederburg Wines being awarded three of the eight Gold Outstanding medals.
Producers in Chile also performed well, the country collected 375 medals, including a Gold Outstanding for its Casas del Bosque Syrah Pequenas Producciones 2012 and four Silver Outstanding medals were awarded to white wines all from the Aconcagua Region.
Among Argentina’s 234 medal haul, it was the country’s famous Malbec wines from Mendoza, which stood out and were awarded four Gold medals.
Brazil, hot on the heels of Chile and Argentina, picked up 19 medals including five Silver medals. Four of these were awarded to sparkling wines, a style which the country has recently been praised for.
The supermarkets put in a strong performance, Tesco was awarded 11 medals including a Silver for its Finest* Stellenbosch Red 2011. Sainsbury’s picked up eight medals, with its Taste the Difference Morador Malbec 2013 winning a Bronze. Lidl’s Cimarosa Chilean Pedro Jimenez 2013 was awarded a Silver medal. Aldi was awarded a Bronze for its The Exquisite Collection Uco Valley Malbec 2014.
IWSC General Manager, Ewan Lacey commented, “South Africa has done extremely well in the Beautiful South results. This year IWSC hosted showcases in South Africa and South America earlier this year, and the level of wines discovered were outstanding. Interestingly, looking at the results as a whole, it was interesting to see that we found that 2013 vintages were the strongest in this year’s competition.”
For the full list of Beautiful South winners, go to http://www.iwsc.net
DRINKS ENTHUSIAST 