Decanter World Wine Awards 2026: An uplifting experience

Let’s cut the ribbon on our 23rd year of judging the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA)... with a question. What’s the competition for? Why do 245 expert judges from 35 different countries make time in their diaries to come to London’s Docklands each May to taste and then discuss 70-75 wines every day over a week? Why do the world’s wine producers make the effort to enter nearly 17,000 of their precious wines (this year’s total number of entries) for judgement?

There are many answers, but the simplest one is because the DWWA has become a wine-world showcase. Our thoroughness in judging (based always on discussion and never on the simple calculation of scores) is well known; that’s why those global wine experts find working with us rewarding.

Our audience, too, is unrivalled (annual data show that Decanter’s content, through all its various channels, is seen by more than two million wine lovers monthly around the world). If you have something to prove with your wine, this is the most trustworthy and effective place to come to do it.

But in 2026, there’s more. With the foundations of wine culture rattled by tariff barriers, inflation, decontextualised health messages, transport chokepoints, changing consumer tastes and oversupply, our competition has never been more useful to both producers and consumers.

The consequences were remarkable. We saw an uplift in the quality of entries overall (the Rhône team, for example, never before had a full flight of Côte-Rôtie wines to judge, nor has the Co-Chairs’ Best in Show selection simultaneously featured Clos de Vougeot, Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie, Pomerol, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Carmignano, Margaret River, the Dundee Hills, Stags Leap District and a 98-point 2005 vinsanto from Santorini).

That uplift was evident throughout: we’ve never had so many outstanding Gold medal wines competing in our Value category (including wines from prestige locations such as Argentina’s Gualtallary and Australia’s McLaren Vale, and from the Chianti Classico Riserva category), giving us a Top 35 rather than (as last year) a Top 30.

Most significantly of all, the proportion of wines finishing in our three top medal categories rose significantly compared to 2025, though the wines were judged with no less rigour. There were 59 additional Platinum medals this year (the total of 196 representing 1.2% of our 16,631 entry cohort), 191 extra Gold medals (total 924, 5.6%) and 578 extra Silver medals (total 6,193, 37.2%).

Climatic influence

The results, as always, bulge with stories and surprises. As we all know, the global climate is warming – one reason, perhaps, why this year’s top Germany medal, a Platinum, went not to a Riesling but to a Weisser Burgunder (Pinot Blanc) from the Pfalz region.

It might explain why in the UK the county of Oxfordshire receives its first Gold, and why Shropshire and Rutland were among the medals for the first time; why France’s alpine Savoie region took a Platinum as well as two Value Golds; or why Australia’s cool Frankland River made its debut in Best in Show, with wines from Orange and Mornington Peninsula among our Platinum medals.

Similarly, fresh New Zealand unhooked two Best in Show positions and no fewer than eight Platinum medals (including two from Canterbury); Spain’s winners included a Best in Show from moist Rías Baixas in Galicia and a Platinum from breezy Bierzo, neighbours in the northwest.

Don’t, however, assume that wines from warmer climates struggled: producers everywhere are thinking intelligently about the craftsmanship of ripeness – and our judges appreciate rich wines, as they do all wine styles. The fact that Spain, including Sherries, increased its top-medal tally of Best in Show, Platinum and Gold medals by an astonishing 52.4% compared to 2025 surprised us all (the 160-strong tally included Platinum medals for Jumilla, Castilla-La Mancha and Priorat).

Texas burst through our saloon doors with four Golds, while Virginia and Washington state took five apiece; Gascony’s always- statuesque Madiran featured among the Platinums for the first time; while Roussillon’s Maury Sec and the Croatian island of Hvar both achieved debut Best in Show places with splendidly bone-warming reds that nonetheless contrive to be perfumed and complex, too.

Changing for the better

Some team news to finish. Our 245 judges included 106 women this year, a new record but one we hope to keep beating; the overall total included 24 Master Sommeliers, 63 Masters of Wine and 36 new judges.

We instituted a Resident Co-Chair position in 2026, giving a different Regional Chair the chance to guest in the Co-Chair team every year and refresh its approach. This year Caro Maurer MW gave the four permanent Co-Chairs the benefit of her wide experience and insights – and her unrivalled sense of fun.

Finally, our sustainability efforts continue. We still package up and recycle all damaged cardboard; crush and recycle all glass; and send all leftover wine to Biffa’s anaerobic digestion plant at Cannock, north of Birmingham, to create biogas for the electricity grid and biofertiliser for agriculture.

From this year, though, we are breaking down then reusing undamaged cardboard for boxing up our tasting flights, as well as switching from plastic bags for blind-wine service to reusable cotton bags. More innovations will follow next year.

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