Professional Blind Tasting
David Wrigley MW, director of the WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust) and chair of the IWSC Technical and Judging Committee.
"The IWSC boasts the most highly qualified group of international judges of any wine and spirit competition in the world. We are inundated with applications from people who want to judge for the Competition, and have to turn people away every year. We make sure that our 40 MWs and our prominent trade judges from all over the world are balanced by knowledgeable consumer judges, who ensure that products are evaluated with consumer expectations in mind. All judges, including our MWs, must go through an induction process and a trial judging day before they are allowed to officially judge on a panel, and performance is constantly reviewed. We are not trying to be 'Big Brother', but we owe it to participating producers and the consumer to be as accurate and consistent as possible in our evaluations."
Brett Fleming, European Tigerfish Brands Ltd (UK) and Competition Chair Judge:
"The IWSC judging process is structured so that it can never be compromised. The judging panels consist of individuals who are very knowledgeable in the areas they are evaluating. They use the Olympic principle of awarding medals so that only the highest quality entries are awarded, and they do not give medals away. In categories where the products do not score highly enough, no gold medals or trophies are given. For example, last year, entries were up by over 30%, but fewer golds were awarded than in previous years, and no Pinot Noir trophy was awarded because they felt that the entries just weren't good enough."