PRESS RELEASE

Neustadt, 14 September 2016

MUNDUS VINI Summer Tasting 2016:

186 medals for wines from abroad

Last week saw the end of a veritable tasting marathon in Neustadt, Germany, with 4300 wines from all over the world. The 150 jury members from 38 countries, who had travelled to the Palatinate in Germany for this year’s MUNDUS VINI Summer Tasting, presented the highest award, Grand Gold, 22 times, Gold 781 times and Silver 920 times to wines of very good to excellent quality.

Once again, Italy, the winner of 401 medals, proved the high quality of its wines, winning the unofficial country competition against Germany and Spain. However, there was no need for German winemakers to hide away this year either – with a total of 388 medals, they came in second place, just behind Italy, followed by Spain with 302 awards.

Although the European wine growing countries were much in evidence at MUNDUS VINI this year, wines from South Africa (1 Grand Gold, 37 Gold, 31 Silver), Australia (1 Grand Gold, 25 Gold, 21 Silver), Chile (1 Grand Gold, 14 Gold, 17 Silver), the USA (a total of 18 medals), and Australia and New Zealand (10 medals each) also were forces to be reckoned with.

Grand Gold, which is only presented to the absolute top quality wines, went to France (9 awards), Germany and Portugal (3 awards each), Spain and Italy (2 each), and Australia, Chile and South Africa (1 each).

Winners of the Grand Gold were the 2012 Family Reserve Shiraz of the winery Kleine Zalze, South Africa, the 2010 Casella 1919 Cabernet Sauvignon of the winery Casella Family Brands, Australia, and the 2011 Cordillera Carmenére Valley Collection of the Sociedad Vinicola Miguel Torres, Chile.

KWV (15 Gold, 8 Silver) was voted this year’s best South African producer, while the best Australian collection came from Casella Family Brands with 1 Grand Gold, 5 Gold and 1 Silver, who were also named best Australian producer.

The range imported into Germany by GES Sorrentino of Delmenhorst received 1 Grand Gold, 10 Gold and 17 Silver medals, which means Sorrentino has the best range and also wins the special award of ‘Importer of the Year’.

As well as the special prizes for the best producer and best importer, MUNDUS VINI also presented a total of 13 special awards for oversea wines of a particularly high quality that were the best in their particular categories.

‘After the tremendous success of the Spring Tasting with 5200 wines, we see that the 19th Grand International Wine Award MUNDUS VINI is also of great interest to winemakers, and we are especially pleased by the constant increase in numbers of wines being sent to Germany from other countries for tasting and evaluation by our international jury,’ Christoph Meininger, publisher and organiser of the event, is delighted to report.

MUNDUS VINI was founded 15 years ago by the Meininger Verlag, and, from the beginning, has been one of the most important wine competitions in the world.

Information:

About MEININGER VERLAG:

The MEININGER VERLAG publishing house was founded in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in Germany in 1903, and is one of Germany’s oldest specialist publishing houses, now run by the fourth generation of the same family. The company specialises in publications for the wine industry, and is the market leader in this sector. The company also organises trade fairs, industry events and conventions.

Internationally, the Meininger Verlag has made a successful name for itself with the Grand International Wine Award MUNDUS VINI, for which almost 10,000 wines are submitted each year. The media company also holds other wine competitions such as the Best of Riesling, Meiningers Rotweinpreis for German red wines, and Meiningers Deutscher Sektpreis for German sparkling wines, and is the organiser of the International Spirits Award ISW and Meiningers International Craft Beer Award.

Press contact:

Christian Wolf

MEININGER VERLAG GmbH

Maximilianstr.7–17

67433 Neustadt/Weinstrasse

Tel: +49 6321 890 813

Fax: +49 6321 8908 954

Email:

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