2022 Wine Judging - deliberations from our judges #1

Following today's juding, we catch up IWSC Wine Committee member Ali Cooper MW, and hear how wines from South America have been performing, as well as some exciting news from Mexico.

"Starting with wines from Argentina, we had we had a couple of very, very strong flights of Cabernet Franc. From what I recall I believe we awarded three Gold medals to Argentinian Cabernet Francs. All the talk coming from Argentina is that Cabernet Franc is a great variety and grows well and the wines are going from strength to strength and it was great to see that borne out today.  It’s not always the case - you hear about great wines doing well but it doesn't always show in tastings but just really is not the case today."

Judges tasting a flight of reds from South America

"Another varietal that put in a solid performance was Malbec however, while I can’t be certain we obviously the wines are all tasted blind, I suspect the solid performance came from wines from the lower price point. There was a very good quality of entrants, very consistent, and the wines do what you'd expect them to do. There wasn’t anything outstanding or hugely exciting but still a solid performance.

"Chardonnay also put in a good performance today and I think the only category from Argentina that was a little disappointing was the Cabernet Sauvignon. Not a good day for them today.

"Chile was another mixed bag. Sauvignon Blanc put in a consistent show and Pinot Noir overall showed well today. A couple of very nice Syrahs - in summary I’d probably say it was a good day though not an amazing day for Chile.

"Where we did have some real excitement today was from Mexico. Definitely a bit of a surprise to have awarded a gold in this category but the wines we taster today were showing well and this is definitely an emerging region on the “watch” list."


The IWSC’s 2022 Wine Results will be available from 23 May 2022. Discover other deliberations from this series on our News page here.