Georgian wines land major honours at 2017 Decanter Awards

Wines produced by Georgian companies collected some of the major awards at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards, with the prestigious international competition concluding this month.

Promoted as the world’s "largest and most influential wine competition”, the 2017 edition of the awards featured over 17,000 wines from across the world.

While the list of prize-winners will only be published by organisers next month, two Georgian companies have been confirmed to have claimed honours by internationally recognised judges of the event.

The Saperavi by Winery Khareba was singled out for gold medal by the judges. Photo: Winery Khareba.

The Platinum Award for Best Value Georgian Red went to Maranuli winery’s Otskhanuri Sapere wine of 2015 vintage year, marking the first-ever platinum win for a Georgian wine at the contest.

In another major result, a 2012 vintage Saperavi by Winery Khareba was awarded gold in its category.

Further down the classification, Maranuli’s Rkatsiteli wine of 2014 vintage was revealed as the bronze Medal-winner, receiving 88 points out of 100 from the jury.

Finally, the company's Mukuzani of 2015 vintage finished with a seal of approval after being evaluated at 83 points.

Maranuli's Otskhanuri Sapere claimed the first-ever platinum award for a Georgian wine at Decanter Awards. Photo: Maranuli.

Submissions for the 14th edition of Decanter Awards were assessed by over 200 wine experts in London, the United Kingdom. Their ranks included 65 Masters of Wine and 20 Master Sommeliers.

The judges qualified the wines based on their regional and style-based specialisation, tasting the products while knowing the region, style and price bracket of the given wines but being unaware of the producer or the brand name.

Comparing notes between each other, the juries finally reached a consensus on awards for the featured wines.

Gold medal-winning wines were advanced to compete for platinum against other winners from the same region or style, with platinum winners going through to another round of tasting for the ultimate Best in Show award.

Last year, 66 Georgian wines were awarded silver and bronze medals and seals of approval at the contest established in 2004.