2023 Wine Judging - deliberations from our judges - days 3 & 4

This week our judges have been tasting the exciting wines that are being produced in Asia. Although Asian wine production may not yet have reached the dizzy heights of more traditional winemaking regions, at the IWSC we have seen the number of wine entries from Asia rapidly grow, with many countries producing high-quality wines that are gaining recognition both domestically and internationally.

We caught up with our Wine Judging Committee member Sarah Abbott MW to find out which wines have really stood out to our judges this year. Sarah described the two days of our Asian wine judging as “really exciting!”, noting a real change in the wines being sent from China, in particularly, praising their very high quality overall.

Red wines from China, in previous years, saw quite a lot of bronze medals being awarded, with many of the wines seeming quite similar in style, being big, bold and fruity but this year, the wines entered have shown real elegance and balance, with a lot more diversity and finesse. A few grape varieties that have really stood out to our judges were the exciting wines made from Marselan, as well as Syrah and some very elegant wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot.

Our judges were also impressed by the Chardonnay coming from both China and Japan. But it wasn’t just the Chardonnay that caught our judges’ attention from Japan, the Koshu judged show real diversity in style with some exciting skin-contact, demonstrating great examples of orange wine. Japanese Bordeaux blends were praised by our judges, with a gold medal awarded to a stand-out wine. The wines showed great potential for the future.



The IWSC’s 2023 Wine Results will be available from 22 May 2023. Discover other deliberations from this series on our News page here.