User:Tomas e/Wine awards

In the wine business, there are exists a large number awards, medals, prizes and trophies which are awarded in various competitions, shows or other types of events, and which often may be displayed on wine bottles or wine labels to assist wineries in their marketing. These events and awards range from local to international, and vary enormously in character from a few highly coveted, highly competitive and prestigious international awards to a multitude of more-or-less obscure local and regional prizes.

In many cases, each event will hand out a number of different medals to a proportion of the wines participating. Many events feature a bronze-silver-gold hierarchy of medals, but there may sometimes be additional prize levels above the regular gold medals, such as "great prize", "best in show", or "special trophy".

This type of awards has existed for a long time, where wine competitions started out as a part of agricultural shows, and is a phenomenon which predated modern wine criticism. In many cases, it is very difficult for an outsider to obtain information about the degree of competition in a given event, and the actual standards that very applied to award a certain medal or prize.

The attention which this type of prizes receive, and the marketing value of them, vary a great between different markets. Australia is often cited as a country where wine "shows" (as they are called in Australia) are taken more seriously than in most countries. Typically, well established wine producers (those whose wines are commonly rated by international wine critics) do not participate in this kind of events, or participate only in a few international events.

Typical procedures
In most cases, a winery which wishes to have one or more of its wines considered for an award, has to actively enter their wines into the competition. This typically involves supplying a certain number of bottles of the wine, as well as supporting documentation and a fee for participation.

During the competition, the wines are tasted and graded by a panel consisting of several people, which may be wine writers or other wine producers. Often, the better wines are tasted more than one time, where a progressively smaller number of wines that remain in the competition qualify for higher awards.

Once the result has been announced, successful wineries will receive some sort of certificate recording their results, and have earned the right to display the award on their wine bottles and in their marketing. Typically, already official medal stickers are available to be purchased by those who have received an award.