New World Wine Awards bigger and better than ever

Media release
Tuesday 20 July 2010

2010 New World Wine Awards bigger and better than ever

Over a thousand top quality, affordable wines will be swirled, sniffed and sipped as the judging for the 2010 New World Wine Awards gets underway in Wellington on 20-21 July. Of the 160 vineyards that have entered, over 50 are new to the competition, reflecting the increasing awareness and recognition of the awards among winemakers.

The New World Wine Awards is the premier consumer-focused awards competition in New Zealand because affordability and availability of the wines are key criteria for entry. Wines entered into the competition must retail for below $25 per bottle, and there must be at least 500 cases of each wine available for sale.

“This competition has an important place amongst all the various wine awards because it is so strongly consumer-focused. With so many wineries entering the awards for the first time it really indicates winemakers recognise the value of the awards and want their wines judged against their peers,” said Jim Harré, Chair of the 2010 New World Wine Awards judging panel.

An independent panel of 12 expert winemakers, commentators and judges will blind- taste each wine over the course of two days. This year, Dr Rowald Hepp, a world-class winemaker from Germany and Director of Schlos Vollrads, one of the oldest vineyards in the world, will be in New Zealand for the first time to judge at the awards.

“The calibre of the judging panel for this competition is simply outstanding and consumers can have confidence that each medal winning wine is judged according to the same internationally-recognised points system as other leading wine awards,” said Mr Harré.

The judges will award Gold, Silver and Bronze medals, and convene to select the best red, white and bubbles overall. The top 50 wines from the full array of medal-winners will be showcased online and in the New World Wine Awards booklet.

“There is a growing trend of people opting to buy their wine in supermarkets and this competition takes the guess work out of choosing a great wine at a great price. Last year, over 196,000 bottles of the top 50 wines were sold through New World supermarkets across the country in the first six weeks after the winning wines were announced, reflecting the value consumers place on the awards,” said Mr Harré.

The award winners will be announced to the public on Monday 20 September, 2010.

Ends

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