Why are there so many wine competitions?

If everybody liked the same wines it would be a simple matter to hold a single competition to pick the best. The problem is that every wine lover—including highly respected wine judges—has his or her own tastes. Medals and awards are simply the result of a panel of seven or eight judges’ combined opinions.

A different team of judges will have a different opinion. There is no absolute right or wrong when it comes to flavours.
Also, judges from different countries have different expectations of what certain wines should be. They base their opinions on the wines they know back at home.

So we have the annual Veritas Awards Competition, which is judged by panels consisting of seven judges each, with one of them an invited overseas expert. The Michelangelo International Wine Competition has judging panels made up of overseas judges, with one South African on each panel. The Trophy Wine Show tries to select the country’s best wines in each category and uses a panel of mixed local and overseas judges.

So each competition looks at wine from a slightly different perspective.
Remember, though, there is only one wine judge whose opinion should matter to you, and that is yourself.


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