For many visitors to ProWein, one of the most interesting features is the MUNDUS VINI area in Hall 4 / A59 where they have the chance to sample over 350 of the award winners from this leading European wine competition.
Organised by Meininger Verlag in the Spring and late Summer of every year, this year’s February tasting marked the competition’s 34th edition. Over 250 expert tasters made their way from 55 countries to Neustradt/Weinstrasse in the Pfalz to assess wines from the only slightly smaller range of 45 different nations.
Polish Gold
The judges were not told the origin of the anonymous samples in their glasses and some were very surprised to discover that a wine to which they had given a Silver medal was from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan or Colombia. Perhaps most surprising of all, though, was the Gold medal awarded to a Polish white, but this was not a one-off; in fact it was the second time a wine from a country more usually associated with vodka had achieved this level of success.
Of the more conventional winemaking regions, Italy took the lion’s share, with 639 awards (12 Grand Gold, 370 Gold, 257 Silver). Next came Spain with 535 awards (7 Grand Gold, 302 Gold, 226 Silver), Portugal (352 awards), France (296), Germany (193) and Austria (105).
Analysing the result, the competition director, Christian Wolf said he was particularly struck by the progress that had been made by countries in Eastern Europe. Leading this pack by some distance was Moldova (3 Grand Gold, 56 Gold, 37 Silver), followed by Georgia (83 awards), Romania (71) and North Macedonia (42).
Trophies for the most successful wineries
Members of the MUNDUS VINI board will be presenting awards and certificates in the tasting area to the winners on the first two mornings of ProWein, starting at 10am. These will include trophies for the most successful wineries, including R&A Pfaffl (Best Producer Austria), DGB (South Africa),Vinaria Purcari (Moldova), Anecoop (Spain) as well as Fantini Group (Italy).
All of the awards from this year’s competition and previous sessions can be found on the MUNDUS VINI section of the Meininger Verlag website where, uniquely, each wine has its own descriptive pictogram.
