Competition 50 Great Sparkling Wines of the World 2021

Presentation

Registration for the 9th edition of the annual competition 50 Great Sparkling Wines of the World is now open. Sparkling wine producers from around the world are welcome to participate.

What do we mean by Sparkling?

Sparkling wines produced using the following wine making techniques are *eligible to participate in the competition:

• Méthode champenoise/Traditional Method/Metodo Classico
• Charmat Method
• Ancestral Method
• Sur lies
• Frizzante

*Wines are judged according to the method of production.

Why enter the competition?

• In these challenging times when many wine trade fairs are being cancelled, a gold or silver medal is a reliable way for an importer to discover great new sparkling wines for their markets
• A gold or silver medal and being included in the top 50 is therefore a significant commercial advantage for the wine producer when it comes to export and consumer sales
• With a medal on the bottle, wine importers and therefore their customers will take the decision to try it and buy it!
• The competion is judged by wine importers so wine importers, distributors and the on and off trade can rely on the scores and commercial judgement.
• Each sparkling wine entered receives a score and a meaningful written tasting note. Gold and silver medal winners receive a diploma (printed and in pdf format) which they can use for marketing on a global stage.

The Results

Once the 50 Great Sparkling Wines of the World are selected, the results will be published featuring tasting notes for all the gold and silver medal winners. Producers are free to quote tasting notes for any of their sparkling wine/s amongst the 50 Greats.

And

Once the 50 Great Sparkling Wines of the World are revealed (1st November 2020) a comprehensive marketing campaign will be launched over the following 3 months as follows:

• Direct mailing to over 65,000 wine importers from around the world
• Press releases to key wine and food media targeting both professionals and end consumers
• Weekly articles (blog posts) on each of the producers with sparkling wines amongst the 50 Greats written with the end consumer in mind. Focus also on wine tourism.
• Social Media campaign consisting of posts on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook where we have a combined following across all our accounts of more than 155,000 followers/readers.

Judging

All stages of the judging are carried out blind. Sparkling wines are judged according to production method, ageing and dosage. All Gold medal wines are re-tasted in one single flight to ascertain the competition winner for each method of production.

Judges

All sparkling wines entered are tasted and rated by a panel of international sparkling wine judges who work together over 4 days to determine the 50 Great Sparkling Wines for 2021.

How to participate in the competition

Simply complete a registration form to include all the sparkling wines you wish to submit for the competition. The registration fee for each reference is €97*. 4 x 0’75 litros bottles (or magnums and jeroboams) will be required for each ref entered. Any number of wines can be entered in the competition. Volume discounts are available to those producers entering 3 or more sparkling wines as follows:

• 3 or more sparkling wines 5% discount.
• 5 or more sparkling wines 10% discount.

The producer is responsible for covering all duty, carriage, clearance and shipping costs.

• The deadline to receive registration forms is *31 August 2020. 
• The deadline to receive samples is  *11 September 2020

* Southern hemisphere producers can request an extension on the above dates if needed.