“We have rarely seen such a close final, except for one point!” reports Philippe De Cantenac, founder of the RVF World Tasting Championship aka Championnat du monde de dégustation which was held today, Saturday October 14 at Château Sainte Roseline in Provence. As a competing member of Team USA in 2019, I was curious to see who won and what the wines were. With 33 teams from five continents for the first time, and with many close scores, they suggest it shows the growing importance of this international competition where competitors taste blind 12 wines to determine the grape variety(s) (up to 10 points depending on the proportion of the grape variety in a blended wine and 10 points for a single-varietal wine), the country of origin (5 points), the appellation (5 points), the vintage (3 points), and the producer (3 points) in a four hour tasting marathon.
The Romanian team of Iulia Scavo, Valentin Ceafalau, Horia Hasnas, and Cosmin Udrea with coach Radu Rizescu squeaked past the Netherlands team of Danny van Lamoen, Lonneke de Bruijn, Coen Pollaert, and Michael de Rooij 108-107. With only 95 points, the Denmark team of Thomas Rydberg, Jonas Tofterup, and Hans Werge came in third while France with Vincent Mercier, Denis Marniesse, François Breteau, and Eric Bordas with Coach Franck Bonnet placed fourth with 90 points.
Romanian team member Julia Scavo credits their win to teamwork: “This victory is the fruit of real teamwork!” reports RVF and “To keep the mind fresh, our strategy was to consider each wine as the first wine, leaving aside previous results.” Great winning strategies, Romania! This is very much contrary to how we were coached, and we can see how well it worked!
Tied with 88 points at wine #11, Netherlands and Romania faced the final bottle, a sweet Grenache wine from Roussillon. For appellation, the Dutch chose the AOC Maury, while the Romanians went with nearby Banyuls. With the correct appellation, Romania won by one point.
USA Wine Team jacket 2019
So how did Team USA do?
Who were on the teams?
What were the wines?
Scroll on!
Well, there are three places where I found results for how Team USA performed, and they are all conflicting! On Instagram US Team Coach Kristen Schubert (with teammates Annette Solomon, Stacie Hunt, and Irina Ponomarenko) claims they tied for 9th place. Elsewhere RVF links to a report which shows Team USA came in 10th and here, RVF says USA came in 25th place with 57 points (see rankings below) which isn’t quite better than last year which you can read about here or in 2021 (read about that year here).
1. Romania (108 points)
2. Netherlands (107 points)
3. Denmark (95 points)
4. France (90 points)
4. Spain (90 points)
6. China (87 points)
7. Belgium (82 points)
8. Italy (80 points)
9. South Africa (76 points)
10. Brasil (75 points)
11. Austria (73 points)
11.Japan (73 points)
11. Portugal (73 points)
11. South Korea (73 points)
15. Great Britain (72 points)
15. Taiwan (72 points)
17. Kazakhstan (71 points)
17. Luxembourg (71 points)
19. Hungary (65 points)
19. Sweden (65 points)
21. Finland (62 points)
22. Australia (61 points)
23. Germany (60 points)
24. Switzerland (57 points)
25. USA (57 points)
alternatively, 76 total with each wine score below:
| 18 | 18 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 19 |
26. Macau (55 points)
27. Monaco (54 points)
28. Cyprius (53 points)
29. Kenya (50 points)
30. Moldavia (45 points)
31. Malaysia (42 points)
32. Albania (21 points)
Scoring is based on the following criteria:
- grape (up to 10 points depending on the proportion of the grape variety)
- country of origin (5 points)
- appellation (5 points)
- vintage (3 points)
- producer (3 points)
And what were the wines?
How do you think you would do?
LES VINS DÉGUSTÉS
Vin N°1 :
Cépage principal : Chardonnay
Pays : France
Appellation : Champagne
Producteur : Ayala
Millésime : 2013
Ayala is a big sponsor so no surprise to see one of their wines kicking off the competition with a sparkle of confidence for everyone!
Vin N°2 :
Cépage principal : Riesling
Pays : Allemagne
Appellation : Palatinat-Rhénan (Rheinpfalz)
Producteur : Dr. Bürklin-Wolf
Millésime : 2021
This one would be a confidence builder also for most teams.
Vin N°3 :
Cépage principal : Garganega
Pays : Italie
Appellation : Soave Classico
Producteur : Gini “Contrad Salvenza”
Millésime : 2020
Having spent time in Soave in June, I think I would have this one dialed in!
Vin N°4 :
Cépage principal : Malagousia (ou Malagouzia)
Pays : Grèce
Appellation : Péloponnèse
Producteur : Giannikos Winery
Millésime : 2021
I don’t know my Greek wines at all so I would have missed this one, so thank goodness it’s a team activity so maybe someone else specialized in Greek whites.
Vin N°5 :
Cépage principal : Verdejo
Pays : Espagne
Appellation : Rueda
Producteur : Bodega Campo Eliseo
Millésime : 2020
Oh, how fun! I’m not sure how well I would have done — this is where team work comes in!
Vin N°6 :
Cépage principal : Clairette
Pays : France
Appellation : Châteauneuf-du-pape
Producteur : Château Beaurenard
Millésime : 2016
There is something very distinct about Clairette so likely I would be on the right track here.
Vin N°7 :
Cépage principal : Cabernet Franc
Pays : France
Appellation : Saumur-Champigny
Producteur : Clos Cristal
Millésime : 2018
I feel confident I’d get this grape and maybe even the appellation right!
Vin N°8 :
Cépage principal : Carmenère
Pays : Chili
Appellation : Apalta
Producteur : Domaine Bournet-Lapostolle
Millésime : 2020
I’ve been tasting a lot of Carmenere lately, so I am confident I’d get this one right.
Vin N°9 :
Cépage principal : Cabernet Sauvignon
Pays : Etat-Unis
Appellation : Santa Cruz
Producteur : Peter Martin Ray Vineyard
Millésime : 2018
Yes, I bet I’d get the grape and the country and possibly even the appellation! I cut my tasting teeth working in the tasting room at Ridge on Montebello Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Vin N°10 :
Cépage principal : Touriga Franca
Pays : Portugal
Appellation : Douro
Producteur : Niepoort
Millésime : 2017
Oh, another red I think I’d get right. And I’m headed to Portugal next month!
Vin N°11 :
Cépage principal : Cabernet Sauvignon
Pays : Italie
Appellation : Toscana
Producteur : Monteverro
Millésime : 2019
Fascinating! And surprising! Another Cabernet Sauvignon, and another wine from Italy! This is where treating and tasting each wine like it’s the first one comes in handy, and not second guessing organizers! I think I’d guess the grape, and if we guess the country, we’d know it would be Toscana.
Vin N°12 :
Cépage principal : Grenache
Pays : France
Appellation : Banyuls grand cru
Producteur : Les clos de Paulilles
Millésime : 2015
I’m amazed that so many teams did so well with this wine! I think I’d get the grape, the country, and the region, but would I have guessed Banyuls or Maury? Probably Maury!
Read about the competition in–
2020: France wines again; did USA compete after all?
2021: Who Won 2021 World Wine Tasting Championship, Who Competed for Team USA, and A Lawsuit
2022: And the winner is: Luxembourg wins World Wine Tasting aka Championnat du monde de dégustation 2022
Congratulations to all! Enjoy!
I hope to join you again in France for the competition again one of these days — as a competitor or as a journalist!
Cheers!
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wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 