A few days ago I wrote about my selection of favorite wines from the Selection Sauvignon competition and I promised to come back with details of the overall medal winners. So, here you can read about some of the very best wines out of the 1210 that participated in the competition.
But first a few words about how the competition works. Essentially, the Concours Mondial du Sauvignon / Sauvignon Blanc Selection (or World Sauvignon Blanc competition) is a totally “blind” tasting; you know nothing about the wines you taste. You taste the wines in series of around a dozen wines and they are in some way “similar”, for example, a series can be from a specific region, but you as a taster do not know which region. The only thing that you know is the vintage, but personally I find that to be mainly irrelevant. Sometimes you can get some additional information if it can have a specific impact on the evaluation of the wine, e.g. “this is oak-aged”.
So you basically taste all the wines completely blind and evaluate them simply based on the impression you get when you taste them – their intrinsic quality in your own opinion.
Some other competitions are “half blind”. They group the wines into what they consider to be logical categories, for example “Loire Valley sauvignon blanc in a price range between 5 and 15 euro”. That tends to lead to that the tasters judge the wines more on “typicity”, i.e. if they are typical for the category they are in, rather than based on their intrinsic quality. Personally, I prefer to judge the wine on their taste rather than on how they fit some imaginary ideal taste profile. This can sometimes give good surprises when you are tasting and judging the wines without preconceived ideas.
All wine tasting is essentially subjective. There is no way to judge wines “neutrally” or “objectively” on some universal quality scale. (What is the objectively “perfect” amount of acidity or “perfect” amount of oak ageing? Well, it depends on your preferences). This being said, in most cases the 5-7 judges in each tasting panel tends to have similar opinions. But there are sometimes disagreements.
But let’s dive into the wines that stood out in the Concours Mondial du Sauvignon, or the CMB Sauvignon Selection.
Eight wines were awarded special trophies, so called “revelations”:
Best Sauvignon of the Competition – Dubourdieu Trophy
- Sauvignon Blanc Sieme Eichberg 2021 Weingut Adam-Lieleg, Südsteiermark, Austria
Revelation Austria
- Sauvignon Blanc Neusetzberg 2020 Weingut Krispel, Vulkanland Steiermark, Austria
Revelation Blend
- Sauvignon Chardonnay 2022 Domaine Saint-Lannes (SARL Nicolas Duffour), Côtes de Gascogne IGP, France
Revelation France
- La Grande Chatelaine 2019 Vignobles Joseph Mellot, Sancerre, France
Revelation Italy
- Raif Sauvignon 2021, Azienda Vinicola d. Giovanett G. C. sas, Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT (Trentino Alto Adige), Italy
Revelation New-Zeland
- Saint Clair Pioneer Block 1 Foundation Block Sauvignon Blanc 2022, Saint Clair Family Estate, Marlborough
Revelation South Africa
- Gustus Sauvignon Blanc 2020, Darling Cellars, Darling, South Africa
Revelation Oaked Sauvignon – Tonnellerie Sylvain Trophy
- Villiera Bush Vine Sauvignon Blanc 2022, Villiera Wines, Stellenbosch, South Africa
All in all a bit less than a third of the wines were awarded some kind of medal. You can find all the medals at the Concours Mondial du Sauvignon here.
The country that brought home the largest number of medals was France which is not surprising since it is also the country with the most sauvignon blanc vineyards. The Steiermark region in Austria was the wine region that won the most medals, with 85 medals. Encouraging, since the competition will be held in Austria next year. South Africa, that hosted the competition this year, was awarded an impressive 56 medals, a clear illustration of that this is a successful grape variety in the country. That is not surprising. It is a grape variety that gets a lot of attention in South Africa and they even have an organisation to promote it: Sauvignon Blanc South Africa.
The whole list of medal winners is long so I won’t subject you to that. But in addition to the above, I would like to give some special recognition to some of the wines that showed well but that were from less famous places when it comes to Sauvignon blanc:
One medal winner from Argentina:
- Sauvignon Blanc Extremo 2021 Bodega Altupalka, Salta
Three from Bulgaria:
- DiVes winery Sauvignon Blanc Aged in oak barrels 2020, PGI Thracian Valley
- Quantum Sauvignon Blanc 2022, Domaine Boyar
- Pearl White Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2022, Domaine Boyar
One from Chile:
- Casillero del Diablo Reserva Especial Sauvignon Blanc 2022, Valle de Colchagua
Three from Croatia:
- Sauvignon 2022 Vinarija Kopjar, Zagorje-Međimurje
- Sauvignon 2022 Vinarija Puhelek Purek, Prigorje-Bilogora ZOI
- Sauvignon 2022 Bolfan Vinski, Zagorje-Međimurje ZOI
One from the United States:
- Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2022 St. Supéry Estate Vineyards Winery, Napa Valley
Three from Greece
- Droumo Sauvignon Blanc 2021 Kir Yianni S.a, Macedonia, Regional Wine of Florina
- Samaropetra 2022 Kir Yianni S.a, Macedonia, Regional Wine of Florina
- Sauvignon Blanc 2022 Ktima Gerovassiliou, Macedonia
Two from Hungary:
- Bujdoso Sauvignon Blanc Selection 2021 Bujdosó Szolobirtok és Pincészet, Lake Balaton
- Haraszthy Clone Sauvignon 2021 Haraszthy Pincészet Ltd , , The Great Plain, Etyek-Buda
One from Northern Macedonia
- Sauvignon Blanc Barovo 2022 Tikves AD Kavadarci Winery
Two from Mexico
- Vinaltura Sauvignon Blanc 2020 Vinaltura SA de Cv, Querétaro
- GG By Gina Sommelier Sauvignon Blanc 2018 Hoteles y Viñedos del Valle de Guadalupe SA de CV, Baja California
One from Portugal:
- Lagoalva Sauvignon Blanc-Verdelho 2022, Quinta da Lagoalva Vinhos SA, Tejo
Three from Romania:
- Castel Sauvignon Blanc 2017 Jidvei Srl, Transylvanie, Târnave
- Sauvignon Blanc Coltul Pietrei 2021 Vitis Metamorfosis, Muntenia, Dealu Mare
- Domeniul Ciumbrud Sauvignon Blanc 2022 Sc Domeniile Boieru Srl, Transylvanie, Aiud
One from Slovenia:
- EK Vinarstvo Šmarje Unoaked 2021 EK Vinarstvo Šmarje d.o.o., Primorska
And finally, two from Switzerland:
- Sauvignon Blanc La Mine 2022 Jean-Louis Mathieu, Valais AOC
- Château du Crest Sauvignon 2022 Domaine Château du Crest, Genève AOC
The full results of the World Sauvignon Blanc competition are available here.
