Last year our winemakers brought home an even number of 500 medals from international competitions

The wine-competition year traditionally gets under way with the highly competitive Vinalies Internationales contest in Paris. From a total of 30 medals (4 more than last year) 6 wineries received the top gold award, with 24 silver. Vinařství Štěpán Maňák, Vinařství Horák, Mikrosvín Mikulov and Zámecké vinařství Bzenec all stood out among the most celebrated wineries in the world. Thirty of the best Moravian wines followed these and may be found in the renowned publication 1000 Vins du Monde, where all the very best world wines are listed.  

The fact that Moravian and Czech wines fulfil the highest quality requirements can then be confirmed by the judgements at one of the most prestigious wine contests - Sélections Mondiales des Vins in the Canadian city of Québec. Gold medals here went to the ZNOVÍN ZNOJMO winery for their Sauvignon Blanc Tropical 2014, late harvest and Vinné sklepy Lechovice for Riesling 2013 ice wine.

And again at London’s renowned worldwide gathering Decanter World Wine Awards, where Moravian and Czech vintners were conspicuously noticeable on the winners lists. Here we find 2 silver medals, 18 bronze and 29 diplomas. Among the silver medals we see Vinselekt Michlovský with an Aurelius 2012 selection of botrytised berries and also the Reisten Winery with its Riesling Classic 2013 late harvest.

An unbelievable three out of a total of seven titles of Champion in individual categories, one great gold medal and a further 41 medals were achieved by Moravian winemakers in the international Muvina Prešov competition. A great gold medal as well as the title of Champion among sweet wines was awarded to Grüner Veltliner 2011 ice wine from CHÂTEAU VALTICE - Vinné sklepy Valtice, which gained yet another two gold medals along the way. The champion among the dry white wines was Pinot Blanc-Sauvignon Blanc, Moravian Land Wine 2012 from Vinařství Valihrach, while among the other white wines the jury was most captivated by Pálava 2012 selection of grapes from Vinařství LAHOFER.

In the second London international contest International Wine and Spirits Competition our winemakers received 16 silver and 23 bronze medals. Apart from the traditional white grape varieties rosé and red wines also featured among the medals. The largest number of medals was attained by the BOHEMIA SEKT group which received 3 silver and 2 bronze medals. Also among the most successful were Vinařství Dufek and Vinařství Petr Skoupil.

Moravian and Czech vintners then sent their wares over the ocean for a second time, on this occasion to the San Francisco International Wine Competition. Here they achieved a great gold medal for Pálava 2014 late harvest from the Vinice Hnanice Winery and a further 7 gold, 31 silver and 37 bronze medals.

At the largest world competition AWC Vienna our Moravian vintners gained 27 gold, 136 silver and 98 marks of good quality (”Seals of Approval“). Among the most successful here were Vinselekt Michlovský, which took home 5 gold, 23 silver medals, and 11 Seals of Approval. Others who excelled in Vienna were BOHEMIA SEKT and Vinařství Štěpán Maňák, who both received three gold medals.

Moravian and Czech winemakers were yet again successful at the prestigious MUNDUS Vini competition in Germany. A gold here went to the Vinselekt Michlovský winery for its Aurelius 2012 special selection of berries, whilst further awards went to Víno Mikulov for Veltlínské zelené 2013 late harvest and Vinařství U Kapličky for Alibernet 2013 late harvest. Other than the three gold medals which the international jury gave to these wineries, the BOHEMIA SEKT Group too reaped just rewards in the competition – the specialists gave the company a special prize for the best sekt (sparkling wine) of eastern Europe.

Asian markets are becoming of increasing interest to winemakers the world over and Czechs are no exception. It is thus all the more important for their marketing activities to succeed in the very important Chinese competitions, i.e. China Wine and Spirits Awards and Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition. And our vintners hit the jackpot in Asia too. In the China Wine & Spirits Awards they can take pride in one gold medal, then in Hong Kong they brought home 23 medals. The jury’s attention was drawn to our sparkling wines, not to mention the 6 medals for Moravian red wines.

The tenth edition of the Israeli competition TERRAVINO came up with a pleasant surprise for the Vinselekt Michlovský Winery – apart from a gold medal and being named Best of Nation for the best wine emanating from the Czech Republic, their Welschriesling 2009 special selection of berries won the title of Absolute Champion of the competition.

The number of successes and competitions where our vintners came home with medals was greater than this of course. This account is just a selection of the biggest and best known contests and the most interesting awards that were made to the wines and winemakers of this small central European nation, which is more and more capable of competing with the great wine powers every year.


Press release. For further information:

Marek Babisz, National Wine Centre

E-mail: marek.babisz@vinarskecentrum.cz

Te.: +420 602 470 262

Nikola Bukajová, Omnimedia

E-mail: n.bukajova@omnimedia.cz

Tel: +420 602 355 069