Sep 05: The just concluded 23rd edition of Mundusvini on Aug 30-Sept 2 at Neuestadt an der Weinstrasse with a record number of wines brought out the best organisational skills of Meininger group, and combined with the other wine tasting opportunities for the 175 judges from 42 countries, and the Wine Export Meeting with Speakers from the US, Norway, Netherland, India, Korea and China made it a well rounded competition for the judges as well, writes Subhash Arora who had been invited for the 14th consecutive time and was impressed again with Mundusvini-the well-oiled machine
There were a total of 175 judges from 42 countries with India represented by the sole Cavaliere Subhash Arora holding the Indian tricolour flying high for 14th time in succession. As expected, Germany was far ahead of every country with 74 judges, representing over 42% of the total. Italy had naturally the next highest number if 11. With my offering Italian wine as specialty, majority of the wines served to my panel were Italian wines. France was no. 3 in the list with 8 judges.
It was apparently an astute decision taken by the Mundusvini organisers to add a Spring Tasting in 2014, thus making it two competitions in a year effectively- one in the last weekend of February end the other during the last weekend in September, as always. Christoph Meininger, owner of the Meininger publication group with his sister Andrea, had then confided to delWine that they were still not interested in numbers but the quality of the competition. The purpose was to include producers from the Southern Hemisphere who had the new vintage ready for release during the month of February and were thus looking forward to appropriate competition like Mundusvini, one of the appropriate global competitions.
The decision was a smart one- in the very first year (2014), the competition achieved 17% growth in one year whereas it had grown 16% from 2008-2013. This year the total number of samples shot through 11,000 including the 4,300 at the Summer Tasting from 30th August to 2nd September, 2018. What was surprising was that the entries of 6,700 in the Spring Tasting in February, were more than double that of the current Summer Tasting.
In line with the universal higher consumption of red wine, samples submitted to Mundusvini 2018 had a major share with 2195 out of 4,311 samples, representing half of the samples while whites with 1520 samples, constituted only 35%. Sparkling wines formed 8% and Rosé 4%, balance being fortified and perl wines. India as always was missing in the list of 39 producing countries that submitted the samples, lead by Italy (1189) and Spain (747) pipping the host Germany by the post at 742, followed by Portugal (361), France (307) and Australia (188). Even Thailand had 5 samples! Surprise omission was China though there was a lone judge from there as well. Interestingly, there had been 5 samples from India in 2014 for the first time.
The famous German efficiency showed in plenty in Mundusvini which seems to be well-oiled machinery, capable of running on its own. But the disciplined German officials were not only excellent in toiling hard but very focused, ensuring there were no errors anywhere in the result which is another unique feature of this competition headed by Christian Wolf, Director of Tasting . As Herr Wolf explained, the results would be announced within 2-3 days of the conclusion of the competition, an onerous job but accomplished at every edition.
Not judging alone
As always, judging at Mundusvini is not only about wine tasting of samples but includes opportunity to visit wineries and taste several wines which are not a part of the competition. For instance, besides tasting several local wines at lunches, and the welcome dinner where award winning wines were served at Hofgut Ruppertsberg, there was a wine tasting of Cavas in conjunction with CRDO Cava and organised by ICEX- the Spanish wine promotion agency.
Pedro Ballesteros MW curated and presented in his inimitable style, Gran Reserva and the new highest category introduced 2 years ago Cavas de Paraje Calificado from 8 top quality producers. This was followed by dinner with wines from the Canary Islands (tasted at a guided tasting by Pedro a couple of years ago) at Arens Restaurant at Hotel Haus Am Weinberg in Sankt Martin facing the beautiful Rheine Valley. (Details in another Article)
The wines tasted at the Summer Tasting, of course help producers in the Christmas sales. By splitting the competition Meiningers have been able to get more samples; some producers even end up sending more samples annually.
Wine Export Meeting by Mundusvini
A new feature added at this edition was organisation of a Conference on the afternoon of August 31 when six Speakers from different countries- 3 each from the existing regions followed by 3 from the emerging markets focused on the market of their country. Alex Berkley (USA), Tor Sigfried Frostmo (Norway) Chris Alblas (Netherlands), Subhash Arora (India), Mi Yeun Hong (Korea) and (Robert Joseph (China) gave a brief scenario of the wine industry in their countries.
But for the time allowed for each speaker (15-20 min.) which did seem woefully short, especially if one considered 5 minutes for Q/A session, it was a very interesting and informative seminar and most of the 1225-150 people who attended it, really appreciated it and found it very useful. It is fairly certain that it will become a routine fixture at every edition of Mundusvini.
Every judge looked forward to the next edition for various reasons- judging, visiting wineries, conference and bonding with fellow judges from different countries being the main motivational factors. The opportunity to taste and discuss over 200 wines was an incentive enough for me to hope for the 15th presence next year, meeting several friends of different nationalities.
The results have been announced today. A total of 12 Grand Gold, 600 Gold and 1,133 Silver medals were awarded at the MUNDUS VINI Summer Tasting 2018. Italy once again won the country competition for the best wines at this year’s Summer Tasting, with 483 medals, followed by Spain with 309 and Germany in third place with 293 medals. The quintet of top European producers is completed by Portugal with 154 medals and France with 114 medals.
For Complete List, visit Mundusvini Summer Tasting Awards 2018
For some of the earlier Articles please visit:
Mundusvini 2018: Visiting Organic, Vegan winery Pfaffmann 1616
Mundusvini 2018- Spring edition has record entries
21st edition of MUNDUSVINI concludes successfully
Mundusvini Wine Competition completes the record 20th edition
15th edition of MUNDUS vini 2014 concludes Successfully
Indian Wines debut at Mundusvini International Competition
MundusVini Concludes with Record Entries Tasted
MUNDUSvini Completes a Decade
MundusVini displays Strong Italian Accent
Record Wine Entries for Mundusvini
Mundus Vini: Judgement at Neustadt
Subhash Arora
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