Forty one countries participated in this huge wine competition that has literally hundreds of qualified judges tasting approx 1500 wine daily for 2 weeks. There is even a ‘Faults Clinic’ where judges can send particular bottles that are suspected of being faulty, for actual analysis. Last years fault clinic identified that 5.9% of the wines entered were found to be faulty: 3% were corked and 1.5%, as a percentage of all red wines, had excessive volatile phenols from Brettanomyces.

 

The International Wine Challenge has cemented its place as the biggest blind tasting in the world. The competition attracts over 9500 entries each year and participants have to send in either 4 or 6 bottles of each wine entered, which inevitably leaves left over’s. Each year these are packed off to selected charities such as The British Red Cross, The Royal National Lifeboat Association etc. Additional wines that remain are auctioned off and proceeds given to The Wine & Spirit Benevolent Society and Wine Aid.