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Charosa Viognier scores the highest points of 97/100 to win the Best Trophy. Charosa Sauvignon Blanc bags a Sliver while Charosa Tempranillo Reserve 2012 and Selection Syrah 2013 get a Bronze each.
Grover Zampa continues with the string of successes in the international wine competitions with the Art Series Sauvignon Blanc 2015 topping the list with a Gold Medal and representing India in the Top Twelve white wine category. La Reserve 2013 red gets Silver while the white Viognier has been awarded Silver. Vijay Amritraj red has also managed Silver while the Art Series Rose gets a Bronze. Thus, out of 7 labels submitted, 5 have romped home with a medal.
Fratelli Sangiovese 2014 and Vitae Sangiovese 2014 won a Bronze each. KRSMA gets a Bronze each for Sangiovese 2014 and Cabernet Sauvignon 2012. Surprisingly, there are no medals for Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 or the K2 which was introduced in 2013 as the producer was not happy with the vintage to give it the Estate label and declassified the iconic wine.
UK-based Soul Tree and Myra get their wines produced at the Oakwood Winery in Shrirampur, near Shirdi. Both have given the address of that winery in their submission. Soul Tree Sauvignon Blanc gets a Silver. Myra gets a Bronze for the Shiraz Reserve 2013.
Another winery that has performed well has been Reveilo which submitted 5 samples and was awarded for 3 The Late Harvest Chenin gets Silver while Grillo and Shiraz Reserve get a Bronze each.
Ten Indian wineries submitted samples for testing- Charosa, Four Seasons, Fratelli. GroverZ, KRSMA, Myra, Rendezvous (Pause), Reveilo (Vintage Wines), SoulTree based in UK and Sula.
Chateau Mercian of Japan which has been in the news for its high quality wines for the last few years, won the Best Winery of the Year Award. Eddie McDougall, the Hong Kong based wine expert and a TV Show presenter known popularly as The Flying Winemaker whose Asian Wine Review (AWR) conducted the competition says, ‘this level of consistency is indicative of the level of winemaking that is now possible in Asia and that inspired the creation of our annual review.’
Around 100 wines were submitted by 30 wineries in 6 Asian countries- China, India, Thailand, Japan, Myanmar and Indonesia. They were submitted directly from the wineries, according to AWR
The tasting was done blind by a panel of 4 Hong-Kong based judges. They were told only about grape varieties and the vintage.
The results are published in www.asianwinereview.com. There are several glaring anomalies in the statistics, map and description. Just to name a few:
· 113,000 hA of wine grape vine currently planted in India! Wow!!
· Consistently hot climate allows some producers to harvest twice annually! (Does not seem to be correct. To the best of our knowledge, no Indian wine produces cultivates twice in a year)
· In just one year between 2013 and 2014 there was a staggering growth of 30%! Even the biggest optimists like delWine do not believe that to be true.
· Production figures are incorrect in many instances including Fratelli which already declared the production of a millionth bottle in February this year with 2 months to go. And Reveilo producing only 15,750 liters (1,750 cases)!
· The map has several inconsistencies- like Fratelli shown in Karnataka and GroverZ with the anchor in Karnataka and the first winery in that State- shown in Maharashtra!
The organisers will have to look at that aspect carefully in future or stay away from giving too many incorrect figures that will jeopardise the very credibility of the Review itself. However, the fact is that Indian wines have done well, in general though there are a few big surprises.
Congratulations to all winners –especially the Indian Award winners, and particularly Charosa for the Top Wine Award and Grover for winning 5 medals out of 7 submitted.
Subhash Arora |