By Amy Looker
Australian wines are celebrating their success at the 2012 International Wine Challenge (IWC) with a record 69 Gold medal-winning wines, an increase of almost 15 per cent year on year.
Australia also retained its world ranking position at number 2 behind France and was the country with the highest percentage of wines entered that received awards (83 per cent vs France’s 74 per cent).
A number of Australian wineries picked up more than one of the highly coveted Gold medals. Australian Vintage Limited led the way with 7 Gold medal wins, Wolf Blass Wines Pty Ltd won 6 and Hardys Wines and Yalumba won 4 each. Australia’s iconic red, Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon was one of 2 Gold medals awarded to Penfolds Wines.
The 29th IWC saw 425 Gold medals awarded (the highest Gold medal tally in the history of the IWC) with winning wines selected from a record 50 countries. For the first time, entries were received from Colombia and Bosnia and Herzegovina with the latter awarded one Silver and two Bronze, establishing them as emerging contenders for quality wine production.
The top three Gold medal-winning nations for 2012 were reigning champions France with 120, Australia 69 and Portugal 55.
France topped the medal board overall with a total of 1,136 medals, while Australia came second with 673 and Portugal third with 444