Effervescents^® du Monde 2009

The 7^th international confrontation of the world’s best sparkling wines, Effervescents du Monde^®, organised by Forum Oenologie, was held on November 19-20, 2009 at the Lycée Le Castel culinary school in Dijon, France.

This annual event is unique in terms of its scope, its method and its ambition:

International in scope:

• 24 countries 
• 519 wines
• 75 international expert judges

A strict method:

• Compliance with the international wine competition rules and strict application of the ISO 9002 Quality Assurance standard.
• Guaranteed implementation of scoring criteria for international competitions.
• Rigorous selection of the panel of expert judges, based on experience, diversity of backgrounds, professionalism, determination of their sensorial profile and training in tasting methodology.
• Annual assessment and grading of each taster.
• Faultless, quality-driven organisation: limitation of the number of wines per judge, ideal tasting conditions (sensory isolation, proper tasting rhythm, etc.) and secure computer processing of results.
• Differentiated analysis of the foam (visual) and the effervescence (tactile) of wines.

Ambition:

• To award reliable and thus representative medals each year, reflecting the founding motto of the Effervescents du Monde^® competition: diversity, quality and high standards.

After two days of work, the judges awarded a total of 173 medals.

Medal Breakdown Gold Medals 37 Silver Medals 136

Top 10 Sparkling Wines from Effervescents du Monde® 2009 Medal Country Wine Winery Gold Medal CANADA Sparkling Icewine Cabernet 2008 Pillitteri Estates Winery FRANCE Champagne G.H. Martel - Victoire Brut 1er Cru Champagne G.H. Martel & Cie FRANCE Crémant d'Alsace Chardonnay Brut 2008 Engel Fernand & Fils FRANCE Champagne Cuvée Première Brut Champagne Chassenay d'Arce FRANCE Crémant d'Alsace - Domaine Xavier Muller Chardonnay Xavier Muller ARGENTINA Los Stradivarius de Bianchi - Espumante Cabernet 1998 Valentin Bianchi Sacif ITALY Rosé Bisol Talento Metodo Classico Brut Azienda Agricola Bisol Desiderio & Figli FRANCE Champagne de Castelnau Millésime Brut 2000 Champagne de Castelnau FRANCE Crémant d'Alsace Bestheim Prestige Brut Coopérative Vinicole de Bestheim ITALY Arunda - Excellor Brut Rosè Arunda OHG

General Trends and hight points

Growth

The 2009 edition has been a success, with growth in participation, showing that there is an increasing interest in international, quality-based competitions : 24 countries and 519 wines.

Geographical Diversity

Wide representation came from all the sparkling wine regions (AOC) in France, as well as from the major high-quality and standard sparkling wine producers (VMQ). The entries included wines made both with and without aromatic varietals, using traditional, ancestral or Charmat-type closed-tank methods. 50 % of the wines in the competition were from France, split evenly between Champagne and non-Champagne.

There was also strong participation from Spain, Italy, Brazil, Austalia, Hungary, Switzerland, Argentina and Canada. In France, the areas of Alsace and Burgundy have significantly increased their participation.

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

Some real discoveries were made, thanks to the tasting of rosé and red sparkling wines made with the traditional method, wines made with the ancestral method, sparkling wines made from aromatic varietals and sparkling ice wines. Low-alcohol sparkling wines also drew notice. According to the expert judges, the wines displayed extraordinary variety and richness, with complex flavours and a great deal of finesse.

Red and Rosé AOC and VMQ sparklings wines strongly increased their presence; they also won beautiful medals.

A high-quality award list

With 24 countries, this international competition offered one of the strongest concentration of geographical sparkling wine diversity.

Australia, Spain, Italy, Brazil and Switzerland obtained many medals. It was particularly noted that Brazilian Sparkling muscats enjoyed a tremendous success. These countries were very closely followed by Argentina, Australia, Hungary which also gained a remarkable prize list in 2009.

France obtained very many medals thanks to the strong and very noticeable participation of Champagnes, Alsace and Burgundy Crémants, Diois wines the Loire Valley Appellation and also of the standard Sparkling Wine (VMQ).

The 8^th Effervescents du Monde^® confrontation will be held on November 17-19, 2010 in Dijon, France.

For further information and detailed results for each country, visit: www.effervescents-du-monde.com

The Effervescents du Monde^® competition is organised by the Association Forum Œnologie, in participation with the Revue des Œnologues and in partnership with the Castel Culinary School (Dijon, France), which acts as the sensory performance assessment centre for the expert judges, and hosts the competition.

During the tasting, the wines were served with active participation from students in the Wine Steward class.

The Services Actions Qualité company handled computer processing of all data and results from the competition.