Australia heads China Wine Awards

The third edition of the China Wine Awards (CWA), which last week featured 100 judges tasting 2000 wines and spirits from 35 countries around the world, has thrown up a varied selection of winners, along with a few surprises.

Australia topped the table at the awards, with the antipodean powerhouse picking up 68 Gold Medal-winning wines and spirits.

“Australia has been super-committed to raising the quality of their wines and has worked extremely hard to raise their game, so they deserve this success,” said Nikolas Prehn, CWA Consultant.

From the most successful wine-producing country at the event, South Australia’s Gatt Wines came out winners with six Double Gold Medals. Other notable Australian wineries include premium winemakers Fox Gordon, the iconic Barossa Valley Chateau Tanunda and Thorn-Clarke Wines, which all received 4 Gold medals or more.

Other notable successes were scored by Portugal with 45 Gold Medals, Italy and South Africa with 37, Spain winning 27, France (26), New Zealand (19), Chile (16), Argentina (12) and a somewhat surprising ten for Greece.

“It is interesting to see how at a blind tasting situation, with genuine professional buyers, traditional notions of wine supremacy are questioned and this demonstrates the future of the Chinese wine market,” said Kelly England, President of CWA.

China’s Guangxia (Yinchuan) He Lan Mountain Winery, owned by Pernod Ricard, picked up two medals, raising hopes that the quality of the domestic wine production has been boosted by technology improvements and a deepening understanding of the art of wine making.

For a full list of medal and trophy winners, go to http://www.chinawineawards.com/china-wine-spirits-awards-2012-results/
and http://www.chinawineawards.com/china-wine-spirits-awards-2012-trophy-winner/ respectively.