Italian Wines Highest Awarded at 25th edition of Mundusvini

What can one say about a competition into the 25th edition that has been scaling new highs in terms of samples submitted and flirting with almost 12,000 samples this year and is run like a well-oiled German machine handled very professionally and proficiently by Christian Wolf, the Tasting Director of Meininger Verlag, organiser of many such Tasting events throughout the year. Applauding his team which handles all the technical aspects of the competition, starting from collection of samples, service, tabulation of score sheets and preparing results, Wolf said, ‘when I started working for this competition five years ago, I told my boss, Christian Meininger and the team that I would like to enjoy my annual 2-week vacation a couple of weeks before Mundusvini Summer Tasting and I have been doing it every year since.’

Christoph Meininger who, with his sister Andrea manages the Meininger media empire in Neustadt, distances himself from the Competition, except ceremonial presence at all the events including welcome to the judges on the first day and a formal thank you and Auf Wiedersehen on the last day of the competition. He tells delWine, ‘I stay away completely from this part of the business to make sure there is no interference and the integrity of the competition gets the highest priority. This is extremely important to us- much more than the growth in number of samples.’

There were around 5000 entries in 2009 when Arora joined the competition for the first time. This number saw a steady growth to around 6000 till 2014 when the Spring Edition was also added to accommodate fresh vintages from the Southern Hemisphere countries. The number of total entries jumped to almost double this year. An added advantage was for some companies which entered the wines in the earlier Summer Competition but found them not evolved enough and were submitted for another chance at the following Spring Competition.

To choose the best wines for medals at the MUNDUS VINI Summer Tasting 2019 was the challenging and onerous task for the 170 wine experts from 45 countries including Subhash Arora, journalist and an International Judge from India who has been representing India for the 15th consecutive year at this prestigious and one of the biggest Awards globally.

The results of the 25th Grand International Wine Award indicate that 14 Grand Gold, 818 Gold and 928 Silver medals were awarded by the jury. Details are available at Mundusvini Online:

Italy was in the front with a total of 487 medals, taking it to the country leadership board.  The German wineries won 307 medals and were in second place this year and for the first time overtook Spain with 283 medals. Fourth place went to Portugal (132 medals), followed closely by France (122 medals).

Judges get to taste several of these Gold medal winning wines at the opening dinner of the next edition. Besides, there are several promotional channels including a Tasting of the winners at Prowein throughout the year.

Besides tasting around 50 wines every day, judges are engaged in tasting several German wines at various events in the evening. On Saturday, the penultimate day of the Competition they were given a taste of Spanish wines from Campo de Borja DO  in Aragon. About 10 Grenache (Garnacha) based wines were showcased to convince the audience that fine quality wines did not have to cost a bomb. Later, wines from the region were also served at the Dinner hosted by the Spaniards.

For a few of the earlier Articles, visit:

Mundusvini2019: 24th edition of Leading Wine Competition begins in Neustadt

Mundusvini 2018: An Effective Well-oiled German Machine that spells Success

Mundus Vini: Judgement at Neustadt

Next edition of the Competition will be held for 6 days in mid-February, 2020.

Subhash Arora

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