|
 I thought he was joking when Christian Wolf, the Tasting Director of Mundusvini, told me at the end of the competition as I went to congratulate him and his team for a seamless and smooth running of the Event, that he would be extremely busy for the next couple of days as he and his team would be cooped up to complete the tabulation and declare the results. It was nothing less than a shock, albeit a pleasant one, that I saw the results announced within 2 days and the complete list posted on their website on February 28 and the judges were informed yesterday. Is it the German efficiency or a typical Mundusvini? Hard to tell but a fantastic feat, by any standard and the organisers deserve kudos!
Earlier, barely 5 days ago, Christoph Meininger, the Managing Director of Meininger Verlag that owns and has run the international wine competition for 16 years, had welcomed 187 judges from 44 countries, who were to judge around 6,200 wines from around 150 wine-producing regions in the world. As usual, Italy had led the list of participants with 1519 entries; Italians consider Germany as one of their top markets and are keen participants as they believe these Awards have a significant effect on their business.
This was followed by Spain with 785 entries, followed by France with 721. This year the host country had 703 entries followed closely by Portugal at 694. Most of the German wines came from the Pfalz (185), Baden (145), Württemberg (83), (Franconia) (63) and Rheinhessen (60). Unfortunately, there were no wine entries from India.
It is significant to note that when I first came to judge in 2007, the total entries were slightly under 5,000. The number remained at 6,000 till the recession petered out in 2012. There was a thaw in 2013 after which the entries shot to over 10,000 last year, the second year of the bi-annual tasting taking the expected number of entries this year to a record 11,000.
 When the Spring Season Tasting was introduced, Christoph Meininger had explained that the idea was to encourage the Southern Hemisphere producers to enter their wines of previous vintages, especially the whites. However, there has been a lot more participation than might have been anticipated and when combined with the 5000+ entries to be received for the Summer Edition, the total number in 2017 would easily cross 11,000, making it another record year for the competition.
It might appear logical that the jury list for this edition would have more winemakers, since those from Europe find it more difficult to spare time in August-end as it is the harvest time. But Christian Wolf says, ‘we balance the judges so there are almost an equal proportion of winemakers in both the editions.' He added that the number of entries was particularly heartening and reflected the confidence of the producers especially since there were no discounts offered even if the number of wines submitted was 40 or even 50-and according to the German laws each producer had to submit 6 samples; each entry requires a charge of €150.
Mireia Torres, winemaker daughter of Miguel Torres Sr. who exports Torres wines to India through a joint venture with Thapar-Prestige Wines and Spirits, participated for the first time. She was happy to be here but said she would not be able to come in August- not because of the harvest but because she had to be in Japan during those days.
A lucid explanation came during a long chat with Robert Joseph who has been a part of the competition since 2006 and is one of the Directors. He also now exports his ‘Le Grand Noir’ wines from South of France to India through Sula Selections. ‘There is nothing new or strange in this methodology. We have been doing it in several competitions in UK, including IWC and IWSC. Mundusvini could not do it earlier since it was mandated under OIV which has a rigid and fixed calendar. After we left the patronage of OIV a few years ago, we switched to this system and have been quite successful.’
Another important reason for the Spring Edition becoming continuously more successful is the annual wine show, ProWein which is on 19-21 March this year. Adds Robert, ‘ProWein is the largest and undoubtedly the most important global wine show today.’ The winning wines from the spring tasting will be presented and honoured at an award ceremony on the first day of the exhibition. As Christoph informed the judges, 9000 people came to the huge Mundusvini pavilion last year to taste the award-winning wines. This was a big incentive for the producers to showcase their award winning wines; 600 wines will be showcased at the Show.
Results for Mundusvini 2017
 Nearly 2,500 wines received awards- Great Gold (33), Gold (1,043) or Silver (1392). This represented 40% of the total entries submitted. Spanish wines received the highest number of medals (486), proving their high quality and were closely followed by Italy (484) and France (337). Portugal with 302 and Germany with 285 medals also did well. Armenia, Mexico, Russia and China also impressed the judges and were awarded.
There were also special awards in the Best Producer by the country category, as follows:
Best producer Germany: Georg Müller Stiftung, Rheingau
Best producer Italy: Farnese Vini
Best producer Spain: Gonzalez Byass
Best producer France: Les Domaines Paul Mas
Best producer Portugal: Sogrape Vinhos
Best producer Australia: Kilikanoon Wines
Best producer South Africa: DGB PTY
In addition there were special "Best of Show" Awards for the best wine in a category. For a complete list of Award Winners at the Spring Tasting, visit www.meininger. de
For a few of the other Articles related to the earlier editions, visit : Arora participates at Mundusvini for Record 10th Consecutive Time
Subhash Arora |