Wine Testing and Wine Competitions
Wine competitions and testings can be an essential element of a winery’s marketing plan, enabling consumers to objectively compare wines of different producers and to assess how each one fares against similar ones in its category. They’re also useful tools for retailers and on-premise buyers when making purchasing decisions.
Wine competitions serve to bring together wines of multiple regions, varieties, and price points for evaluation by an impartial group of judges – typically including sommeliers, wine writers/critics/buyers/distributors who know their stuff when it comes to evaluating wine. Such events typically feature submission fees from wineries hoping for medals as a boost for selling their product(s).
At most competitions, judges are divided into panels of three or four people and asked to blind taste each wine without knowing its identity or type. After tasting and taking notes for each wine in question, these judges then form a consensus decision regarding a score for each bottle – often leading to Double Gold medals (requiring unanimity for award), Gold, Silver or Bronze awards being handed out.
Gold medal-winning wines typically score in the 90s or higher and are considered excellent quality wines. Silver medals typically score in the 80s, while bronze means that their quality falls just short of being considered worthy for gold. When wines fail to receive medals at competitions, their scores may still be published as “No Awards”, providing useful data that wineries can use to market and promote their wines more effectively.