This week we are looking at medal winning wines from an international competition called the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. After several years spent travelling from one capital city to another, this year the competition returned to its home city of Brussels to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
The objective of the competition is to provide consumers with a reliable buying cue. They achieve this by bringing together a hand-picked selection of professional wine tasters to taste and assess wines from 41 different wine producing countries. This year, 310 wine tasters made up of 40 different nationalities tasted and assessed a total of 8,060 wines over a three day period. The competition also judges spirits but that is run at a different time and this year the spirit experts from all corners of the world travelled to Tawain.
I have been a member of the jury panel at Concours Mondial de Bruxelles since 2006. The wine tasters who are invited to participate every year are from many different areas of the wine trade and include sommeliers, wine buyers, importers, wine makers, journalists and wine writers. The diverse range of wine entries and the backgrounds of the tasters themselves is seen as one of the unique features of this competition which over 20 years, has emerged as one of the wine world’s best known “wine tasting championships”.
It works like this, the tasting panels taste the wines and then award medals in order of quality, or not, if the wine is not judged to be up to standard. This year a total of 2,330 Grand Gold, Gold and Silver medals were awarded from the 8,000 wines tasted. Every year, less than 1% of the competing wines win a Grand Gold Medal, the ultimate accolade. This year, France retained its leadership position winning 17 Grand Gold Medals, followed closely by Portugal with 16 and Spain with 14. Full results of the 2014 Concours Mondial de Bruxelles are available at:
http://www.concoursmondial.com/en/results.html
2013 L’Ord du Sud Chardonnay €9.99
(Silver Medal Winner 2014 Concours Mondial de Bruxelles)
Stockists: McHugh’s Artane & Kilbarrack; Martin’s Off Licence, Fairview; Baggot Street Wines, Baggot Street, Dublin 4.
Le Vignobles Foncalieu is a co-operative group of over 1,200 producers/growers who farm over 7,000 hectares of vine. The group, established over 100 years ago came together to create wines from some of the largest and best appellations in the wine- producing regions centered around Gascony, Languedoc, Rhône and Provence. The group’s wineries in the Languedoc, and the wines they produce from this region are available in a selection of price-points and styles, from consumer-led entry-level wines, to complex and structured styles in the mid-range price bracket.
This is a modern varietal wine made from grapes grown on selected key plots of land on the best hillside sites from of some of the lesser known geographical areas in le Sud de France.
The L’Ord du Sud Chardonnay is fresh with lots of melon fruit and punches way about its weight in terms of price/quality. A worth Silver Medal recipient this wine has lovely ripe fruit and a good mid palate structure. Great served with Coq au Vin, slow cooked chicken stew accompanied by mashed potatoes.
2011 Rosemount Estate Shiraz-Cabernet €10.99
(Gold Medal Winner 2012 Concours Mondial de Bruxelles)
Stockists: Dunnes Stores & Tesco, nationwide.
Rosemount Estate was originally a family winery founded in the Hunter Valley in 1969 by Bob Oatley. Today they have vineyards all over South Australia. Until 2011 it was the largest family owned winery in Australia and one of the biggest selling wine brands in the USA; it is now owned by Treasure Wine Estates, who also have Penfolds, Beringer Vineyards, Wolf Blass and Lindeman as part of their wine portfolio.
This is a classic Australian wine style, blending Shiraz (Syrah) with all its spicy blackcurrent fruit with Cabernet Sauvignon which adds tannin and structure. A classic easy drinking wine it is very fruit forward it has lots of ripe dark berries fruit. A perfect all rounder, great served with either pizza to steak it will also go well with a slow cooked beef stew.
Wine Events
Look out for a new wine guide by John Wilson called Wilson on Wine 2015 – Wines to Drink this Year €12.99. The book will be launched on Monday November 3rd and will be available in Easons and O’Briens Wines.
Rhone Wine Week starts next Monday. Kicking off the week is the Rhône Quiz on Monday 3rd at Medley in Drury Street with the chance to win your team a trip to the Rhône Valley. Entry price is €25.00 per team. To book a team in contact: Emma Tyrrell Tyrrell & Co. Tel: 045 870882
As well as the wine quiz there are dinners, tastings, discounts and more Rhône-related offers planned for all around the country. From Down to Galway, from Limerick to Cork and on to Dublin, with plenty more in between.
More information on www.RhoneWineWeekIreland.com
For all wine related events check out the wine diary on www.jeansmullen.com
