The Hotel du Vin & Bistro Wimbledon, in Cannizaro Park was the beautiful setting for the first ever UK Wine Awards luncheon and presentation on Wednesday 19th July.

Major sponsors, Country Life, Hotel du Vin and Waitrose gathered with English and Welsh wine producers, judges, journalists and key members and supporters of the UK wine industry to celebrate and to congratulate the medal and trophy-winners.

Following the unveiling of the award winners during English Wine Week in May, with Hampshire’s Coates & Seely’s ‘La Perfide’ Blanc de Blancs 2009 being crowned Supreme Champion Wine (full list below), one final trophy was revealed at the Awards luncheon on Wednesday – that of Winery of the Year, which was awarded to Bolney Wine Estate from Sussex.

Susie Barrie MW and Oz Clarke, co-chairs of the stellar judging panel thanked the sponsors, praised the producers and explained what they had set out to achieve and their ambitions for the new national competition for the UK wine industry.

“We were really very excited about this new competition because it just felt right”, commented Susie. “The fact that you, as an industry, wanted a new, contemporary competition just shows how ambitious and confident you are right now, and rightly so. You are making world-class wines and they really deserve the exposure and recognition that a competition like this can give them.”

Full list of trophy winners:

Supreme Champion, Coates & Seely ‘La Perfide’ Blanc De Blancs 2009
Winery of the Year, Bolney Wine Estate
Best Overall Still Wine, Bolney Wine Estate Foxhole Vineyard Pinot Gris 2016
Best Overall Sparkling Wine, Coates & Seely ‘La Perfide’ Blanc De Blancs 2009
Best Still Bacchus, Lyme Bay Bacchus Block 2015
Best Single Varietal Still White, Bolney Wine Estate Foxhole Vineyard Pinot Gris 2016
Best Sparkling Blanc de Blancs, Coates & Seely ‘La Perfide’ Blanc de Blancs 2009
Best Sparkling Rosé, Coates & Seely Rosé 2009
Best Classic Cuvée sparkling wine, Digby Fine English Brut 2010
About the UK Wine Awards

The UK Wine Awards is the national competition for wine produced from grapes grown in England and Wales, inspired by the growing popularity of English and Welsh wines. Designed to showcase the distinctive styles of sparkling and still wines produced in the UK, the Awards are run by the United Kingdom wine industry in association with Hotel du Vin, Country Life and Waitrose.

The wines were judged to an international standard by twelve top wine experts that regularly judge the biggest international competitions. Chaired by Susie Barrie MW and Oz Clarke the line-up comprised David Bird MW, Richard Hemming MW, Alex Hunt MW and Phil Tuck MW, as well as Christine Parkinson from Hakkasan, Rebecca Hull MW from Waitrose and Hamish Anderson from Tate restaurants. They were joined by writer and broadcaster Jane Parkinson, M&S wine buyer Elizabeth Kelly and Corney & Barrow buyer Rebecca Palmer.

Overall:

293 wines were entered
62% of these won medals, in keeping with the proportion of well-established international competitions
Eight wine trophies were awarded
20 Gold, 36 Silver and 127 Bronze medals were awarded
What the Awards can tell us about English and Welsh wines:

English Sparkling Wines are particularly successful. Though only 42% of the wines entered were sparkling, 75% of gold medal winners were sparkling wines, as were 67% of the silvers

Chardonnay is the dominant grape variety in terms of wins, gaining six of the 20 golds and 50 medals overall for still and sparkling wine

“The competition exists to offer you encouragement, advice and to fire your self-belief. None of you would be in this room if you didn’t believe that in England and Wales we can do great things and we’re on the verge of doing even greater things and this competition is to help you convert those dreams into reality.”
Oz Clarke

Pinot Noir also proved a successful variety in England and Wales, winning 42 medals overall

The most popular still variety remains Bacchus, England’s third most planted variety (after Chardonnay and Pinot Noir), gaining just under a third of the total medals won by still wines

Pinot Gris is an emerging variety in England, winning golds for a still and a sparkling

Medal winners were a mix of established and new producers, showing that even from the first vintage wine, some excellent wines are being produced in the UK

Susie Barrie MW on the wines

“When it came to the sparkling wines, we really found that those with some extra lees-ageing or bottle-ageing or both were the ones that stood out. We know that market forces can make that tricky to achieve but it is worth noting that they were the wines that really wowed us. Perhaps most exciting though was the potential of the still wines, particularly the Pinot Noirs, the Chardonnays and the white Pinots and I think we’re going to see those categories of wines winning several gold medals over the next couple of years.”

The same can be said for the number of established producers that are proving time and again that the quality of their wines is consistent

A wine that has seen more ageing has proven to be the overall winner – this shows the ageing potential in English sparkling wine

photo credit Tom Gold, www.tomgoldphotography.com