68 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
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JULY/AUGUST 2017
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
WINE
FOR THE PAST TWELVE YEARS, I have been flying to Lon-
don in the last week in April to participate in the world's largest
wine competition.
e Brits seem to have cornered the market on vast international
wine contests. England mounts the International Wine and Spirit
Competition, which was established in 1969; the International
Wine Challenge, founded in 1984; and the biggest of them all, the
Decanter World Wine Awards, which is a relative newbie that burst
onto the scene in 2004.
Decanter promotes itself on its cover as "e world's best
wine magazine," so perhaps it's only fitting that it should ex-
tend the hyperbole by trumpeting that Decanter's wine com-
petition is now the largest in the world. e numbers for the
weeklong competition this year were certainly impressive:
Number of wines entered: 17,429 (Brexit does not seem to
have deterred European winemakers from entering the competi-
tion, as the number of attendees were up this year over last by well
over a thousand)
Number of countries that entered: 58
Number of judges from all over the world: 219
Number of Masters of Wine judging: 68
Number of Master Sommeliers judging: 20
Number of Riedel glasses used each day: 7,000
e man behind the creation of the Decanter World Wine Awards
is Steven Spurrier; and if the name sounds familiar to non-wine
people, Spurrier was the character portrayed by Alan Rickman in
the 2008 comedy-drama Bottle Shock. On May 24, 1976, Spurrier
organized a wine tasting in Paris, pitting California Chardonnay
and Cabernet Sauvignon against France's great white Burgundies
and red Bordeaux. Famously, the California wines, judged blind
by French critics, were placed first in both categories. is seminal
event became known as "e Judgment of Paris" and has been cop-
ied by aspiring wine regions ever since.
At the opening of each morning's tasting session, Decanter's pub-
lisher, Sarah Kemp, gives the assembled judges a pep talk. I recorded
her words this year: "We know we have the world's greatest judges
here. I don't believe in false modesty but I do believe there is no
greater group of talent in the wine world than are at this competi-
tion." Which is very flattering and sends us off in a good mood to
taste — in our panel's case, over 80 wines a day for four days.
| DETOURS |
The King of Wine Contests
Tony Aspler travels to London to judge the Decanter World Wine Awards, and consumes a lot of wine — and cheese
