The Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships (CSWWC) is now officially open for 2017 entries via www.champagnesparklingwwc.com.
The CSWWC is the first and only terroir-driven competition judged exclusively by internationally renowned fizz experts, who all taste each and every wine submitted to guarantee an unprecedented level of consistency and accuracy of judging. Founded by Tom Stevenson, with the support and expertise of Essi Avellan MW and Dr Tony Jordan, the CSWWC provides both consumers and trade with the definitive annual guide to the best champagnes and sparkling wines on the planet.
We are delighted to once again have an Earlybird offer of £135 per wine on all entries paid before the 31st January 2016. There after the cost is £149 per wine and the closing deadline is 15th April 2016 with judging taking place in the UK in May & June. Volume discounts will also be available to those producers entering more than 3 wines with 5% off 3 or more wines and 10% off 10 or more wines
Medal results will be released in July, with the top World Champions being crowned at an official Championships Dinner in London on Thursday 14th September on the eve of their publication in The World of Fine Wine. All awards and tasting notes will also be published in The Champagne & Sparkling Wine Guide 2018, available in colour softback, black & white softback and Kindle editions, from November 2017.
Founder and Chairman of the Judges, Tom Stevenson, comments: “With the unrivalled sparkling wine experience of our three judges (the “Dream Team” of Tom Stevenson, Essi Avellan MW and Dr Tony Jordan), it is little wonder that no other competition can boast the breadth and quality of entries that the CSWWC receives. With 22% more entries than last year and producers competing from no less than 26 countries, including first time participants from Armenia, Croatia, Moldova and Ukraine, the CSWWC is the largest and most relevant sparkling wine competition in the world.
“It is worth reiterating for anyone new to this competition that we taste blind (which is to say we have no knowledge of the identity of each wine beyond its origin, basic style and grape varieties); we judge medals and Best in Class strictly in flights of the same origin and style (Cava Rosé exclusively against Cava Rosé, Australian Blanc de Blancs exclusively against Australian Blanc de Blancs etc.); we judge wines conventionally as Gold, Silver, Bronze, Commended, No Award, Possibly Faulty and Definitely Faulty, but we award – unconventionally – only Gold and Silver medals because these are the truly outstanding wines; and we only judge in flights of different style for National trophies and different origin for World Champion trophies.”
“Although we do not award medals lower than Silver, we take a keen interest in theoretical Bronze winners. With a Bronze from a classic sparkling wine appellation, it is easy for producers to submit a magnum the next year and almost guarantee a Silver or even a Gold because the difference in quality between a regular 75cl bottle and a magnum of effectively the same wine is truly that great. However, when a Bronze is from a relatively obscure, unknown or untested region, they have virtually no local expertise to assist them, so it is important for those producers to understand that they could be on the verge of achieving a world class sparkling wine. We make the judges’ notes for such wines exclusively available on a confidential basis and recommend they use this feedback to fine-tune their improvements. The competition becomes a record of their progress and, hopefully, it will eventually lead to a Silver or Gold medal. There were 195 theoretical Bronze medal wines this year. They won nothing, but they can and should give hope for the future.”
For 2017 the CSWWC has a brand new website, the design boasts a clean fresh look with a user friendly navigation system. The competition will also be supported by a proactive international PR, marketing and social media campaign.
For further information please visit www.champagnesparklingwwc.co.uk