A large package arrives from Decanter Magazine. 

It’s the ledger of winners of the Decanter World Wine Awards 2017.

In equal measure, I feel interested to see the results and dismayed at the size of the package: 306 pages of dense information.     How to make sense of the results without spending hours and hours reading the ledger word for word?

Going back to basics makes the most sense.  I ask myself: what are the key messages from the wine awards?

Here are my three take-aways from the report

1.

The value placed by Decanter magazine on the consumer benefits of identifying and promoting wine quality,

and,

spotlighting lesser known wines and/or wine regions.

2.

Recognizing the expansion of the wine industry into many more countries and wine regions than I would generally consider.       Literally A to Z  from Albania to Veneto.   I count 68 countries and wine regions in total.  (Countries and wine regions are counted separately, for example: New Zealand is 1 entry and there are 6 French wine regions noted).

Who would have thought a few years ago about wines from new and exciting regions, or “lesser known areas” as Decanter discreetly states, entering these global competitive processes?

This point is exemplified in the list of countries represented in the description of Platinum Best in Show wines.  In the Decanter World Wine Awards, Platinum Best in Show is the highest accolade possible.   All Platinum Best in Category winners from around the world are pitted against each other to win the Platinum Best in Show.   There are 34 wines in this category which triumphed over 17,229 entrants to the competitive process.   Some of the countries these wines are from are:  Moravia (Czech Replublic), Canada, England, Uraguay, Austria, Portugal, Corsica, Luxembourg as well as the usual suspects France, Italy, Australia, South Africa, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand.

3.

Acknowledging the rich diversity of grape varieties and wine styles around the globe together with the complexity of wine production with issues of sustainability and environmental considerations in an ever changing world.

In this context, the wine industry is an increasingly crowded market place with all that it implies in terms of running a business and succeeding; the risk and reward considerations are daunting.

As I continue reviewing the report, I recognize many wines in the ledger of winners.   One I am particularly delighted to see is the Best Value Cypriot White;  Vouni Panayia, Alina  Xynisteri, from the Paphos region, Cyprus that I wrote about in my most recent post after our visit there in the early Spring this year.

At the end of the day, over dinner, we discuss the report and in general the challenges of making wine and running a Winery.   Clearly, the imperative is to make the highest quality wine possible and this is all good news for the consumer.

Our choice of wine to accompany dinner is new to us:   Painted Rock Estate  Winery from the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.   We enjoy one of their acclaimed reds,  a  Merlot:  dark fruit flavours with a touch of spice and chocolate that lingered well on the palate and paired well with a small tenderloin steak with sautéed mushrooms in a red wine and mustard sauce.

The 306 pages of the DWWA 2017 report don’t look so intimidating now and I certainly appreciate the opportunity to discover more about the diversity of award winning wines, wine makers and wine making trends. For me, the real value in this competitive process is the increasing emphasis on and encouragement for high quality wines.

Reference:

The Decanter World Wine Awards 2017 competitive process together with all tasting notes and related information can be found at http://www.Decanter.com/dwwa

September 2017