Why we need the ‘Wine Olympics’

Like most things in life, the Olympics have got me thinking about wine – specifically, whether the medal-winning wines we see on the shelves of supermarkets and wine shops are really deserving of those accolades. Unlike the scarcity of Olympic medals, they seem to be abundant.

Wine is the most appallingly marketed product, with both cheap and expensive bottles looking very similar – give or take the weight of the bottle, and maybe the quality of paper used on the label.

As such, buying wine can feel like a bit of a lottery. There’s so much choice on a shelf where everything looks the same. So perhaps, seeing a bottle adorned with a winner’s medal may make you more inclined to buy it – but does it mean it’s any good?

There are hundreds of wine competitions spanning the globe – from small, regional association competitions to large-scale internationally renowned awards.

But how are they organised? If you were an elite athlete, you would expect judges at regional, national, international or Olympic events to follow the same process of judging. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about wine competitions, whose methodology can vary widely.

There are those that fall under the umbrella of OIV, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine. Headquartered in France, the OIV gives “patronage” to numerous competitions including Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. These competitions have a rather outdated methodology for tasting, including prohibiting judges from discussing individual wines, which strikes me as a very limiting way to assess their merits.

Then there are those that follow a similar judging pattern to each other. These include the Decanter World Wine Awards, the International Wine Challenge, and the International Wine and Spirits Competition. Here, entrants pay in the region of £150 per wine to enter and have the fruits of their labour rigorously tasted by a panel of judges. In these larger competitions, the panels are made up of highly respected professionals and experts from all across the globe, giving greater prestige to the competition itself.

The wines are tasted blind, organised by style, region or price. It can take several days to conclude a competition and is a staggering logistical undertaking. And then come the magical stickers – the small medals that wineries receive (well, they have to buy them) to adorn each bottle when they’ve won.

In the most recent Decanter World Wine Awards 18,143 wines from 57 countries were tasted, “resulting in 50 Best in Show, 117 Platinum, 643 Gold, 5,977 Silver, and 8,016 Bronze medals”. So, not everyone is a winner (but only barely).

So, should you be swayed by wine medals? Well, yes and no. The last three contests I mentioned are globally recognised and highly respected competitions. A medal winner from one of these competitions will have been tasted with great thought and consideration and re-tasted if necessary. Yes, wineries have to pay to enter but there is no guarantee that they will win anything.

Standing in the aisles of a supermarket can be daunting, and a selection from one of these may well be a safe bet. However, it’s vital to remember that they are essentially advertising tools, used as a way to stand out in a very crowded market.

And most importantly, when it comes to wine tasting you must remember that it is a totally human activity, subject to all the biases and preferences you would expect.

Ultimately, the only taste that matters is your own, and the more you experiment and try, the closer you get to finding the wines you truly love – and that is the only winning wine that matters.

Rosamund Hall (DipWSET) is a freelance writer and wine expert