The International Wine Challenge (IWC) owned by William Reed Business Media is now in its 34th year. The IWC is accepted as the world‘s finest and most meticulously judged wine competition which assesses every wine blind and judges each for its faithfulness to style, region, varieties and vintage.
Tastings takes place over 4 weeks in a suite of rooms that form part of the iconic Oval Cricket ground in south London. Throughout the rigorous judging processes, each medal-winning wine is tasted on three separate occasions by at least 10 different judges and awards include Trophy, Gold, Silver and Bronze medals and Commendations.
Approximately 30 judging panels comprising four to five judges of which one is Senior, one or two are Judges and one may be Associate, taste daily about 10 different flights of wine totalling between 50 and 60 samples. The Panel Chair is in most cases a Master of Wine (MW). Would-be tasters in this contest will have to undergo a training ending with an exam prior to being appointed to the panel, unless they have at least a WSET Diploma level certificate in which case they may be invited to participate as associates for a couple of years before becoming judges.
The 2018 results have now been published on https://www.internationalwinechallenge.com
and include all award winners, as well as IWC International Varietal Trophies, IWC National Trophies, IWC Regional Trophies and Great Value, IWC Winemaker of the Year Shortlist, IWC Champion of Champions Shortlist and IWC Own Label Award Shortlist. The IWC Saké Results will be published and 1 June and all the Champions will be announced during the IWC Awards Dinner at the Hilton Park Lane on 10 July 2018.
The Czech Republic was well represented as usual and our winemakers were awarded 6 Silver and 13 Bronze medals, as well as 19 Commendations.
Silver medals were awarded to:
Bronze medals were awarded to:
Apart from the author, another juror on the judging panel from the Czech Republic was Zdeněk Karafiát DipWSET, originally from Sokolov.
The judging dates for IWC 2019 have been announced as follows:
- Tranche 1: 12-16 November 2018
- Tranche 2: 1-11 April 2019.
Text and photo: Helena Baker DipWSET