At the 16th Best Chardonnay of the World competition, held each year in Burgundy France, Delicata’s 2007 Victoria Heights Chardonnay D.O.K. Gozo has been awarded a Bronze medal. Out of 923 Chardonnay wines in the international competition only 307 medals were awarded, 616 of the wines entered received nothing.
Out of the 54 Bronze medals awarded, Victoria Heights Chardonnay is rubbing shoulders with some very impressive wines and it is interesting to note the value aspect of the Victoria Heights Chardonnay when compared to other Bronze medal winners.

From France for example other Bronze medal winners include some very high priced, impressive white burgundies like 2007 Chablis Saint Martin Domaine Laroche – 2006 Vougeot Premier Cru Les Clos de Vougeot – 2007 Chateau Philippe le Hardi Mercurey – 2007 Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes-de-Beaune Clos Philippe le Hardi – 2007 Pouilly Fuisse Cuvee Cantrius Chaintre – 2007 Saint Veran Les Champs Ronds Grande Exception Monternot – and numerous Chablis including Domaine bottled and Vielle Vigne wines.
Well known wines from other countries such as Italy, Chile, Australia, Argentina, Spain etc. also received Bronze medals including one of the worlds leading brands Jacob’s Creek Reeves Point 2005 Chardonnay and Italy’s Sicilian wine star Planeta with their 2007 Barrel matured Chardonnay

There is a strict method focus on quality compliance in accordance with the International Rules Oeno 2/94 and their strictly followed quality assurance procedures. There is also a rigorous selection of expert judges and the use of scientific criteria for tasting and secure computer processing of results.

As part of these quality assurances, all new judges, before being admitted to the tasting panels, need to participate in a one-day training session. This course specifically identifies for the judge the sensory profile of the Chardonnay aromas and flavours to expect along with the familiarization of methods used in international wine judging.

The number of samples is limited to 17 per panel and the judges are not asked to add up their scores so they can focus on evaluating the wines. 923 wines were tasted from 37 countries by 300 international experts. Fifty percent of the judges came from outside France and the tasting is spread out over a four day period.

The medal distribution of the 2009 awards is 1 Grand Gold medal – 65 Gold medals – 187 Silver medals – 54 Bronze medals. Only one medal was awarded to Malta.