Already the world’s largest wine competition, Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) continues to grow annually – the last edition seeing a record 18,250 wines judged from 57 countries.
‘It’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that if the wine world does have a sort of unique benchmark, it might well be DWWA,’ said co-chair Andrew Jefford.
‘If you enter DWWA you know that there will be wines from all over the world in the competition’ Jefford added. ‘You know they will be judged against their peers, in their cultural context, by experts versed in that field. So we think we deliver the best possible judging job we can do. And after that, you have your chance to perform on the world stage.’
Hundreds of the world’s leading wine experts are recruited yearly to judge at DWWA with professional backgrounds encompassing all areas of the trade from Master Sommeliers and Masters of Wine to buyers, winemakers, retailers, distributors, educators, writers and consultants. Assessing wines in panels of three or four, these different backgrounds are important to provide outcomes that reflect trusted, independent decisions.
‘The judging process I think is very fair and that’s what I enjoy’ said DWWA judge Élyse Lambert MS. ‘We have the information to be able to evaluate the wine, the price category in which it’s found, the appellation, the percentage of alcohol, the residual sugar. All this information is very valuable when you evaluate the wine to understand where it’s coming from and to understand
