The Radomil Baloun Winery from Velké Pavlovice yet again defends its award in Bergamo

Amazingly this competition is one of only five wine contests in Italy (population over 50 million inhabitants) having an international content (the Czech Republic can boast many more by far). The event is organised by the Conzorzio Tutela Valcalepio and is under the patronage of the O.I.V. – Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin with an O.I.V. delegate present each year to oversee the competition.

209 samples took part coming from 17 countries. Other than Italy these were in alphabetical order: Argentina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Malta, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, USA. The tasting committees comprised 81 tasters from 27 countries in 7 committees of 9 to 11 tasters each. The judges were technicians, journalists and this year for the first time two consumers were added to each judging panel.

These awarded two great gold medals (for wines achieving 92 or more points) to the following wines: Corvus Sarapcilik (Turkey) and Ella Valley Vineyards (Israel) who were the two awarded cellars.

Of all the Gold Medals chalked up by the juries, just 62 could be awarded. This is in line with the regulations of O.I.V. – which allow for only 30% medals – so several wines were not included on the prize list who would otherwise have received gold medals whilst no silver medals at all were actually handed out.

Talking about the results of the tasting session, Sergio Cantoni, the Director of the Competition, said “The level of the samples was once again really high. O.I.V. (Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin) states that only the 30% of total amount of sample taking part in the Competition could be awarded. This year we had to stop at 87/100. The Competition regulations state that in order to reach the Gold Medal a sample should reach 85/100. Stopping at 87/100 we awarded Gold Medals only. It’s a great result!”

Sadly among the ‘Gold Medallists‘ who thus missed out was Vinařství Valihrach of Krumvířfor their interesting Cabernet Franc 2007.

Italy was the most represented nation in terms of awarded samples with a total of 41 gold medals, followed this year by Croatia which took 8 golds. They were followed by Israel with 3, Serbia and Montenegro both 2 and Argentina, Bulgaria, Georgia, France and Romania each with 1.  

Apart from the above-mentioned medals, every participating country has the opportunity to gain a journalists' prize Premio della Stampa, which is given only by those jury members who are journalists to the best wine from each country (provided the wine achieves a minimum rating of 85 points). Our Moravian Baloun Winery once again excelled with his Merlot 2012 from the Nadzahrady vineyard by defending this special award from Bergamo which it has gained every year it has been present.

The main novelty in this year’s contest, and strictly watched by the O.I.V. representative who was Ralf Anselmann, was the presence in the juries of three members of the lay public – consumers – whose marks were collated separately and added up to give special Consumers Choice Awards. In all there were 4 winners coming from Germany (2), Croatia and Italy with 1 apiece.

“The Consumer Jury,” said Sergio Cantoni, “has proved an amazing experiment. It opened the door of an international competition to the consumers and, at the same time, permitted us to know their opinion about the samples. Among the 4 wines chosen by the consumers, 2 also won a gold medal (as awarded by the the regular juries). We will repeat this experience in the future.”

For the first time, also, the wines were served by students of the IPSSAR Hospitality School of San Pellegrino Terme, who excelled in their enthusiastic professional approach.    

On Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th October the wines awarded with medals and special prizes (Press Prize & The Consumer Choice) were available for tasting in the heart of the historic city centre, the Alta Città (Upper Town) at Sala Giuristi in the Palazzo della Ragione.

Full results can be obtained from  

Text & Photo: John and Helena Baker AIWS, Bergamo