See all of the medal winners at the 2018 Decanter Asia Wine Awards...
Twenty wines were awarded a prestigious ‘Best in Show’ medal at the Decanter Asia Wine Awards 2018 (DAWA 2018), with Georgia and Moldova sharing the limelight alongside Australia, France, Italy, New Zealand and Portugal.
Full DAWA 2018 results were published on Decanter.com today (24 September).
Search all Decanter Asia Wine Awards 2018 results here
See DAWA 2018 results by medal:
All DAWA 2018 results include wine tasting notes and stockist information on where to buy the medal winning wines across Asia, where possible.
More than 50 expert judges, including Masters of Wine and leading palates in the Asia region, gathered in Hong Kong earlier this month to blind taste 3,138 wines at DAWA 2018 judging week.
Andrew Jefford, one of six vice-chairs at the awards, said, ‘There is no tasting I go to every year that is better organised than this one, so it’s really easy to look for excellence which is the job of any tasting.’
Andrew Jefford during DAWA 2018 judging week. Credit: Decanter.
Andrew Jefford has been a judge and vice-chair in the Decanter Asia Wine Awards since the launch of the competition in 2012.
Li Demei, who has been judging at DAWA since 2014 and who was also a vice-chair in this year’s competition, said, ‘There is no question that the quality of wines being entered continues to get better’.
The number of wines deemed worthy of a Best in Show medal was five more than in 2017.
Best in Show medals at DAWA 2018
Australia took the lead at this year’s DAWA, winning seven Best in Show medals. These included:
- Campbells’ Merchant Prince Rare Rutherglen Muscat
- Wolf Blass’s 2015 White Label Chardonnay
- McGuigan’s 2007 Bin 9000 Semillon
New Zealand scooped two Best in Show medals and two Platinum medals.
France continued its strong performance from last year with Languedoc-Roussillon, Rhône, Provence and Alsace each being awarded Best in Show medals. The region of Jura also received its first top accolade in the competition. Champagne earned two Best in Show medals, both for Piper-Heidsieck wines.
Italy received one Best in Show medal, for Zenato’s Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva 2012.
Portugal’s 20 Years Old Terrantez from Henriques & Henriques earned a Platinum Best in Show medal; the same producer also claimed a Platinum medal.
Georgia won one Best in Show prize, which went to a white wine from Kakheti’s Wine Company Shumi, while Moldova won a Best in Show for an Riesling IceWine.
See Chinese medal winners on our sister site DecanterChina.com
About DAWA Judging Week
Gold wines at DAWA 2018 Judging Week. Credit: Decanter.
Judging took place in Hong Kong and ran from 04 – 07 September.
This year the chairmanship was shared between six top wine experts. Last year’s vice-chairs of Li Demei, Andrew Jefford, Michael Hill-Smith MW and Poh Tiong Ch’ng were joined by Sarah Jane Evans MW and Jeannie Cho Lee MW to oversee the DAWA 2018.
How the wines are tasted
Wines are organised for tasting by country, region, colour, grape, style and vintage to ensure that they are judged in flights against their peers.
Medal categories correspond to the 100-point scoring system used by Decanter and many top wine critics around the world.
After competing for bronze, silver, and gold medals, the gold medalists are re-categorised by grape or style and re-tasted by a panel consisting of vice-chairs. The wines are judged according to their origin and the judges will be aware of countries, regions, sub-regions, grapes and vintage.
The Best in Show is the ultimate accolade at the Decanter Asia Wine Awards. In a separate tasting, the vice-chairs will select the ‘Best in Show’ from the Platinum winners. The vice-chairs will be aware of the origins, grapes and vintages of the wines they are tasting, but not the name of the wine or producer.
Asia-based wine lovers will have the chance to try this year’s winning wines at several events this Autumn including the Decanter Shanghai Fine Wine Encounter on 17 November.
