Silver Standards: 4 Global Trends in Premium Sparkling Wine

The bubbles business is getting serious. At the IWSC 2025, 22% of sparkling wine entries were awarded a Silver medal - a meaningful benchmark for quality and precision in this highly competitive category. Here are 4 key trends that emerged among the silver medal winners:

France Leads The Field

France's 59 Silver medals revealed quality trends reshaping Champagne itself. Vintage Blanc de Noirs stole the show. "Our best performing flight was vintage Blanc de Noirs," noted judge Fionnuala Synnott. "These wines had real complexity and depth, a great showcase of the Champagne region's potential."

Most notably, Champagne is quietly pivoting. Non-vintage blends showed a notable rise in Brut Nature styles, signalling a clear move towards fruit purity over the heavily autolytic character that defined previous generations.

English Sparkling On The Rise

England's 34 Silver medals signal a category disruption. Judges consistently highlighted the strength of English Pinot Noir and Chardonnay across multiple vintages, calling it "groundbreaking stuff." The wines earned praise for freshness, character and balance, attributes that are increasingly aligning with consumer preferences for elegant rather than overpowering sparkling wines.

Italy: Beyond Prosecco

Italy's 22 Silver medals showed impressive range beyond basic Prosecco. Despite 2024 being a challenging vintage, top-performing wines from Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG and Asolo DOCG retained charm and typicity. More significantly, judges noted a trend toward cleaner, drier expressions with refined mousse texture - the technical evolution that separates good Prosecco from great Prosecco.

Keep An Eye On: Canada & Spain

Canada and Spain each earned 6 Silver medals, but their approaches couldn't be more different. Canadian producers from British Columbia and Ontario impressed with precision and elegance - cool-climate advantages meeting New World innovation. Spanish entries, primarily Cava, stood out for their use of native grapes and traditional method quality at accessible price points.

Across continents and price points, the top Silver medal winners shared one obsession: balance, purity of fruit and textural finesse.

Explore the full list of Silver medal sparkling wines below, and discover the full list of Silver medal sparkling wines on our website.