Jura wine blind competition site
In the 2025 World Tasting Championship, held today October 4 at Juraflore Fort des Rousses in the Jura, France, the French have regained the title after a final round with China, Macau, and Australia vying to win with a Hungarian Furmint leading to victory. This makes four championship titles for the French since the contest began in 2013.
- Read about Italy’s win in 2024 here.
- Read about the winners of the 2023 competition here.
- Read about the 2022 competition here.
- UPDATE: Read about how each country did and the wines tasted in the 2025 competition here.
the winners: France
Organized by La Revue du vin de France and with forty teams of tasters competing from all over the world, the 2025 World Tasting Championship lasted for three hours during which competitors blind tasted a dozen wines to determine for each one the country of production, grape variety, appellation, vintage, and producer. With 135 points, France won the competition about 20 points above second and third place finishers China with 118 point and Australia trailing close behind with 114 points.
La Revue du vin de France reports that Macau, competing for the first time, was in the lead for the first half in the competition. However, with plenty of practice, the French team, which placed 28th in 2024, prevailed: “We didn’t want to have any regrets about the preparation, so we spent a summer preparing, our families didn’t see us much!” explains Reynald Nicolas, the captain of the French team. “We had prepared for winning, we worked for it. But to achieve it in the end, it’s magical!”
2019 USA Wine Team at Chateau Chambord: Gwendolyn Alley and Sue Hill plus teammates
It’s quite a challenge to win— tasting that many wines blind and succeeding is more than just blind luck, but skill on the part of the individual tasters as well as the team captain to make sure all of the voices are heard, and that the team works together to come to conclusions about the wines. I would know: Sue and I competed in 2019 for Team USA.
For those unfamiliar with this competition, in most years, including the year I competed, teams taste 12 wines with scoring 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)
RVF began organizing the World Tasting Championship in 2013 with teams from around the world meeting to compete. In 2025, nearly 250 tasters gathered to determine who would succeed 2024’s winner Italy. Both Kenya and the United States fielded teams of females in 2024, and organizers say their “progress continues to inspire admiration.” Tasters met at the Fort des Rousses Rendez-vous which was built at 1150 meters under Napoleon in 1800 to house 3,500 soldiers and 2,000 horses and now serves as an aging cellar for the Comté cheeses.
The program of events this year looks educational and fun:
Friday 3 October 2025: Fort des Rousses
2:30 PM : You will be welcomed by our partners who will be delighted to help you discover their wines.
3:30 PM-4:30 PM: room 1 – masterclass
3:30 PM-4:30 PM: room 2 – masterclass
4:30 PM-5:30 PM: room 1 – Juraflore masterclass
4:30 PM-5:30 PM: room 1 – Domaine Laroche masterclass
7:00 PM -22:00 PM: welcome cocktail reception for all participants
Saturday 4 October 2025 :Fort des Rousses
9:00 AM-1:00 PM: World Tasting Championship Competition
1:00 PM-3:00 PM: lunch cocktail
From 3:30 PM: Fort des Rousses commented visit
5:00 PM.-7:30 PM: free time
From 7:30 PM: apéritif and gala dinner
The USA fielded a team in 2025 as well: Paige Bindel and Katy Long were joined this year by new teammates Ryan Robinson and Dave Reuss. Not sure how they were selected: in 2019, there was a competition of two teams of tasters and Sue and I won a place on the team by out competing others.
At this point, the wines aren’t listed and they haven’t posted about how the other teams placed I will update this when I have that info!
Congratulations to all the teams! It’s quite an accomplishment to make it to the World Championships!
Team USA 2025: Paige Bindel, Katy Long, Ryan Robinson, Dave Reuss.
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 