‘Competition delivers 85 gold medals to wines from New Zealand, Australia and Europe’

The 2014 Spiegelau International Wine Competition, held last week in Marlborough, has awarded 85 gold medals, 199 silver and 536 bronze medals resulting in over 60% of all wines judged receiving an accolade. New Zealand wines received 60 of the gold medals, Australia 14, France five with Spain, Portugal and Chile receiving three, two and one respectively.

Commenting on the results, Chief Judge, Mike DeGaris said, “This was a comprehensive show with a wide range of wines from a number of countries. The overall standard was very high so those awarded gold medals are truly outstanding.”

Twenty judges worked their way through over 1300 wines during three days using almost 5,000 style-specific Spiegelau glasses. Organiser Belinda Jackson commented on the operational aspect, “We had a great team of 16 stewards who did an amazing job of opening, pouring, delivering and clearing the judging samples, not to mention washing all the glasses before and after they were used.”

Australian judges Ralph Kyte-Powell, Sue Hodder and Mike Bennie were part of the judging team. In the words of freelance journalist Bennie: “A wine show with a conscience and a pulse, the Spiegelau International Wine Competition hauls together diverse individuals from across the breadth of the Australasian wine community to assess, discuss and draw collegiate conclusions about a broad range of local and imported wines. Fun, interesting and impeccably run, it was a treat to be invited as an international judge for this show’.

A complete list of medal results can be seen at www.spiegelauiwc.co.nz

Trophies will be announced at an awards dinner being held on Friday 8 August at The Northern Club, Auckland.