An unique geographical diversity

With 34 countries and 518 wines entered, Chardonnay du Monde is the strongest concentration of Chardonnay wine ever realized. It is the most significant and legitimate qualitative competition for the distinction of best Chardonnay of the World.

There was also strong participation from South Africa, Brazil, Canada, France, Spain, Hungary, Italy, Japan and Switzerland.

The country winning the most medals

The good place of France is noted with 36 medals. The Burgundy Region, the Southern France and the Champagne were rewarded by numerous and beautiful medals.

Many sparkling Chardonnay were in competition: Champagne gains very beautiful medals. Belgium and Brazil received also very good notes.

Within Europe: Hungary, Moldavia, Spain, Hungary and Switzerland stood out for their numerous medalled wines.

Outside Europe: Brazil, Canada, Japan and South Africa confirmed their successes of earlier years.

There was a high level of diversity in terms of the sensorial qualities of the wines

Each wine distinguished at Chardonnay du Monde^® was judged for its individual quality. A favourable view is granted to the wines showing good typicity and intense Chardonnay aromas. Oakiness is considered a plus when it is discreet and harmonious, but this quality was marked down when it masked varietal aromas.

Expert-judge gave severe notations for the wines whose flavours of chardonnay are masked by too much wood and Sauvignon flavours; they thus privileged the Chardonnay expression.

The presence of sugar at a few grams per liter has a tendency to improve scores. This tendency, already noted in previous years, was confirmed this year with a number of successes for off-dry wines.

Dry wines were judged successful when they displayed harmony in the form of elegant acidity, with aromatic complexity.

International expert judges trained: a unique level of quality and rigor for the evaluation of the Chardonnay wines of the world

More than 700 international expert judges were admitted to evaluate the wines in competition after a specific training.

Technical Enrichment

The use of a new Professional Tasting Instrument resulting from applied research. In addition to organising a flawless competition is the desire to improving the reliability of measuring instruments. This resulted in the adoption of a professional wine-tasting glass for the tasting of sparkling chardonnay wines. This new tool tested by judges of Effervescents du Monde^® (www.effervescents-du-monde.com) is an INAO-type tasting glass that contains a precise number of nucleation sites. The objective of this new wine-tasting glass "Fleur d’Effervescence^®" is to optimise the tasting of sparkling wines, to calibrate their degree of effervescence, to control the formation of bubbles and to enable ideal expression of the foam…