Medal rain

Karin Leeuwenhoek is a theologian, vinologist and communications scholar. She has ninety Italian olive trees, but mostly loves wine - and philosophising about it. See also her wine blog vinoblogie.co.uk. She writes a column in every issue of WINELIFE Magazine. - TEXT KARIN LEEUWENHOEK | IMAGE PEXELS.COM

Medal rain

Wine competitions, with medals. I had a bias towards it. Partly because of the episode Wine with a wreath Of KRO-NCRV's Keuringsdienst van Waarde. That (as always delicious) broadcast appealed to my own sense of irritation at all those gold, silver and sometimes even bronze stickers on wine bottles. After all, I had tasted a wine with a 'medal' I didn't like often enough. This gave those stickers an implausible undertaste for me. In the TV programme, it was briefly stated that in fact any wine can win a medal somewhere. So a medal doesn't really mean anything. All competitions in the world were lumped together.

In September, I was able to experience for myself what it is like at a wine competition. A very big and famous one in this case: the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. The special edition revolved around sweet and fortified wines, in Marsala, Sicily. I was positively surprised, by both the tasting and judging system, the number and quality of entries as well as the judges. Of course, it makes quite a difference whether a medal was awarded at a competition with lots of good participants, a well-thought-out rating system and trustworthy judges, or at a wood-paneled competition in a backroom in Transylvania, for which it is difficult to bring in both good tasters and entries. Yet even the latter can provide beautiful gold and silver medal stickers.

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