IWSC introduces US tasting round

As entries open for the International Wine & Spirit Competition 2010, a major new innovation sees the IWSC shift the judging of its US wines from London to California.

The initiative, likely to prove popular among US producers, aims to raise further the standards of one of the world’s most prestigious wine competitions, as well as reduce the shipping costs and carbon emissions involved.

The move also ensures that US winners will be able to benefit from a higher profile on a local level, helped by the fact that the IWSC is recruiting local judges to assess wines according to a US palate. Winners will also be able to enjoy a higher profile in their home market as a result of locally organised promotion of their success.

Tasting for all US wines – spirits will continue to be judged in the UK as usual – will take place at the end of March in the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in California’s Napa Valley. The tasting process will use exactly the same format as in the UK, and in order to ensure consistency with the London results, the US panels will be chaired by longstanding IWSC judges.

Once the top entries from the Californian judging stage have been identified, the IWSC will ship these wines to London to compete in the trophy tastings. Here they will also undergo the stringent chemical analysis which sets the IWSC apart from other wine competitions.

The deadline for all northern hemisphere wine entries is 26 February. Entry forms for the US branch of the competition still need to be submitted to the IWSC’s UK base, although the samples themselves should be sent to the CIA at the following address:

The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone
2555 Main Street,
St Helena,
CA 94574

All other entries for the IWSC 2010 need to be received by the following dates:

30 April – All spirits
1 July – South Africa
6 August – South America
13 August – Australia
27 August – New Zealand

For full information or to enter click here

15.02.2010