Mondial du Merlot winners announced
The fourth Mondial du Merlot competition, organised by the Vinea Association in Sierre, Switzerland saw 300 wines entered, from 21 countries.
Among the 33 gold medals, 21 were given to Swiss producers, five to Italy, five to France and one each to Australia and Croatia.
The only grand gold medal of the competition was awarded to Sandra, a winery from Campodipietra in the Veneto region, which also won the Prize for the Best Merlot of the competition and the Prize for the Best Blend.
The Tamborini winery in Ticino won the Univerre Pro Uva prize for the best Swiss Merlot and the HubertusKeller winery won the Vinofed prize for the gold medal winner whose score was the closest to unanimity by the judges.
The older vintages prize went to Azienda Agricola Ceralti in Tuscany, while the best foreign Merlot went to Château Saint-Christophe in the St Emilion appellation area in France.
Judge, Paolo Basso, world number two sommelier, said: "A lovely palette of wines from the Merlot grape were shown during the competition, and it's always interesting to work with a group of judges from around the world and to share their assessments."
Walter Webber, oenologist from Trentino, said: "A competition at this level is a great help to producers in letting their own market as well as the Swiss market appreciate the value of their wines."
Some 50% of the wines came from outside Switzerland, most of them from France and Italy.
The Mondial du Merlot and the Mondial du Pinot Noir in Siere, are the only two competitions in Switzerland that are members of Vinofed, Fédération internationale des grands concours de vins, and that operate at this level, with the sponsorship of the O.I.V. (Organisation internationale de la vigne et du vin), the U.I.O.E. (Union Internationale des ?nologues) and the USOE (Union Suisse des ?nologues).
Keywords:
Search
56-58 Church Walk, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, RH15 9AN
Registered in England No. 6646125. VAT No. 938 4452 95
