So you think that a gold medal wrapped around the neck of a wine bottle means it came first in a competition? Read on…
Back in 1849, the editors of the Leeds Mercury wrote: ‘Prizes are given for the most perfect animals, the best cultivated farms, the most skilful ploughmen, and the most improved implements … the obvious tendency of all this is to raise the intellectual, moral, and social condition of all the classes engaged in agriculture.’
They were describing what was back then the relatively recent phenomenon of the English agricultural show, upon which the wine shows of today are all based. But instead of awarding prizes for the best cow with two calves or the finest merino fleece, we’re handing them out for the Best Chardonnay in Commercial Classes 5, 8 and 9 or some such thing; all of which suggests an explanation is required.
Instead of being grouped by animal or vegetable, wines are usually grouped and judged by grape variety. They’re often then also separated into ‘commercial’ or ‘premium’ classes, depending on how much is actually made. Sometimes the class might relate to the current vintage, or it could even be the year before. Or, just to add complexity, the class might relate to a style description such as ‘soft dry red’ or perhaps relate to a particular blend of grape varieties. Easy huh?
How do you know what kind of class it was in which a wine wins an award? You look at the medal on the bottle, record the class number and which show it was, then get the show catalogue or try to find the answer online. Which, in 99.99% of cases, is not going to happen. A pain in the class? You betcha.
So here are some basic tips when trying to decipher what the awards on bottles actually mean:
Gold medals do not mean the wine came first. Instead, the wine achieved an average score amongst the judges of 18.5/20 or above. As such, it’s supposed to be an outstanding wine of intense flavour, complexity, character and balance; exemplary in its style category. A benchmark. You might expect 3-5 gold medals in a class of 100 wines.
Silver medals therefore don’t mean second place, but actually mean that the wine scored between 17.0-18.4/20 on average. You have every right to expect a wine of high quality with distinctive varietal or developed characters delivered with balance and some style. Around 7-12 might be presented in a strong class of 100 wines.
Then to bronze – given to wines scoring between 15.5-16.9/20. These wines should be well made with good flavour, perhaps revealing some varietal or developed qualities. You could see 15-20 bronzes in a strong class of 100 wines.
15.5, 16.0, 16.5: Bronze medal.
17.0, 17.5, 18.0: Silver medal.
18.5, 19.0, 19.5: Gold medal.
