The IWSC announces winners for its Green Trophies and Old Vine Trophy

As the IWSC continues to focus on its educational and environmental support across the industry, we are delighted to announce the winners of three new trophies awarded at our 2022 Awards Dinner & Industry Celebration.

Earlier this year, it was announced the IWSC would be awarding an Old Vine Trophy, celebrating growers supporting winemaking using old vines. The award was open to all 2022 producers entering wines made from vines 35 years old and upwards.

The shortlisted producers were Cave de Tain, Kanonkop Wine Estate, Le Bertole, Riva dei Frati and Scriani.

Le Bertole was announced as the winner of the first Old Vine Trophy and they were presented with the award by The Old Vine Conference founder, and Master of Wine, Sarah Abbott.

As well as launching its Old Vine Trophy, the IWSC also recently announced it was supporting the old vine regeneration in Turkey. Read more here.

Additional new trophies created this year were the Green Wine Initiative Trophy, in partnership with Green Wine Future and Green Spirit Initiative Trophy, sponsored by Berlin Packaging.

The IWSC’s Green Wine Initiative award, in partnership with Green Wine Future, has been created to recognise the myriad of considerate viticulture and wine making practices underway across the world, the producers shortlisted for this year's trophy were: Stopham Vineyard⁠, Everflyht⁠, Simpsons’ Wine Estate ⁠and Domaine Virgile Joly.

The winner for the inaugural Green Wine Initiative is Domaine Virgile Joly, and the trophy was collected by Virgile Joly. It was apparent from its entry form that Domaine Virgile Joly works incredibly hard to produce wine with as little impact on the environment as possible: recycling all waste, limiting water usage in the winery, building a thermally self-regulating cellar, encouraging biodiversity, and reducing freight weight. Domaine Virgile Joly was praised for its holistic view on sustainability – focusing across the entire production process from grape to glass.

The IWSC’s Green Spirit Initiative award, sponsored by Berlin Packaging, has been created to recognise the multitude of considerate distillation and spirit production practices underway across the world.

The competition for this award was fierce, with our judges impressed by an extensive array of work being carried out by distilleries throughout the world. The shortlisted producers were Cooper King Distillery⁠, Two Drifters Rum, Four Pillars Gin⁠, Brighton Gin⁠, Nc'nean Distillery⁠ and Tomatin Distillery.

Our judges agreed it was Four Pillars Gin who was the worthy winner of the 2022 Green Spirit Initiative Trophy, similarly to Domaine Virgile Joly, a holistic approach has been taken by Four Pillars to its environmentally considerate production practices. Though Four Pillars accounts for a whopping 40% of Australia’s gin output, it takes its responsibilities incredibly seriously, acting as a knowledge bank for upcoming distillers and sharing its experience to create a more sustainable industry.

Congratulations to all our winners.