A wine from the Czech Republic wins a gold medal for the first time on the African continent

The competition came into being in 1997, when PR consultant and wine lover Lorraine Immelman, together with Cape Wine Master Sue van Wyk, wine writer and taster on the international stage, founded a contest in which only foreign evaluators (plus a lone juror from the Republic of South Africa) sat on committees to judge South African wines. The reason is simple: the organisers wanted to identify and select those South African wines that stood the best chance of success on the markets of Europe, America, Australia and Asia on an annual basis. From the very first edition the judging panel was composed of tasters coming from all corners of the globe and after the 16 years of its existence a total of 160 foreign experts from 38 countries have made an appearance here.

In 2003 a category of international wines was added exclusively, and from then on wines from other countries and continents have attended the competition, most notably from Australia, New Zealand, Chile, France, Spain, Italy, Lebanon... and this year the Czech Republic made its very first appearance. And was rewarded! Vinařství Baloun of Velké Pavlovice sent a dry late-harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2011 to the competition which received a gold medal placing it in the same company as such luminaries from the world‘s elite as Sancerre Blanc Jadis from the renowned Henri Bourgeois winery in Chavignol (Sancerre in the Loire valley) or Clos Henry Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough (New Zealand).

And this year the 16th edition saw a significant growth in the number of wines entered in the competition. A total of 1,432 wines from 295 producers, of which 41 came from abroad.

Complete results and further information: www.michelangeloawards.com


Helena Baker, AIWS
member of the tasting jury Michelangelo Wine Awards 2012

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