The rigorous IWC judging process assesses every wine ‘blind’ and judges each for its faithfulness to style, region and vintage. Each IWC medal-winning wine will be tasted on at least three separate occasions by a minimum of 2 panels of judges tasting together, and then tasted by 2 Co-Chairs to verify the panel results. The IWC judging teams include
working in unison to find the highest quality wines each year from the 52 wine-producing countries represented in the competition.
*UK only. European companies with a valid VAT registration number do not have to pay UK VAT. Countries outside the EU do not pay UK VAT.
IWC processing and judging: 7 stages
1. Sample Arrival
Wines from the depot are checked, given a unique code, repackaged and sent to the tasting venue in preparation for the judging.
2. Sorting and Photographing
On arrival wines are unloaded on to shelves in a temperature controlled storage facility. Wines are organised by style then country so that they are easy to locate. At this stage wines are also photographed for our website.
3. Picking and Flighting
Wines are picked from the shelves and put into 'tasting flights' – a group of wines with a similar style and from the same country and region. All flights are then put into blind tasting bags and tagged with their unique identifier to keep their true identity concealed. The wines are now ready for judging.
4. Round One
In Round One of judging, wines are either marked as 'out', given a Commended award or progress to the next round as potential medal winners. The IWC Co-Chairs then re-taste all 'outs' and 'Commended' wines to confirm the mark. If the IWC Co-Chairs believe the wine is eligible, it may be re-entered into round two to give it another chance.
5. Round Two
In Round Two, wines are marked as 'out', given a Commended award or awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze medals. All wines are re-tasted by the IWC Co-Chairs to verify the results.
6. Trophy Tasting
Wines awarded Gold medals progress to the Trophy judging. Regional and national Trophies are awarded. All Trophy winning wines are re-tasted a final time by the IWC Co-Chairs who award the Champion Wine Trophies.
7. Recycling
Once the judging has ceased, all bottles, leftover wine, packaging and corks get recycled.