The 20th edition of the VINARIUM International Wine Contest 2023 took place in Ploiești, located in the Dealu Mare Wine Region in Romania, at the PRAHOVA PLAZA Hotel. 11 Grand Gold Medals were given to wineries from Azerbaijan, Italy, Republic of Moldova, Romania and Ukraine. 

  • There were 1311 samples registered from 23 countries: Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Cyprus, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Republic of Türkiye, Ukraine.
  • 250 producers / importers/ traders/ producers’ representatives) have registered their samples
  • Still wines, sparkling wines, and spirituous beverages of vitivinicultural origin were registered in the competition
  • 40.58% of the total registered samples originate from outside Romania – the organizing country.

Category of wines entered the VINARIUM 2023:

  • 1230 still wines
  • 70 sparkling wines
  • 11 spirits

The full list of VINARIUM 2023 results here.

Special Prizes were awarded by:

International Organizations VINOFEDFIJEV

Main Partner CORTEVA

Partners TEHNO ART INOXTRIAGOLAMOTHE-ABIET

FIJEV Prizes

FIJEV (International Federation of Wine and Spirit Journalist and Writers) awards special prizes for a white, rosé and red  Romanian wine with the highest scores, wines that are made of Romanian single varieties or are blends in which the Romanian varieties represent minimum 50%:

1. White Wine:
Patima
Feteasca Alba 2022
DOMENIILE PRINCE MATEI / Crama DeMatei

2. Rosé Wine:
Diamond Selection Rose
Busuioaca de Bohotin 2022
Domeniile Averești

3. Red Wine:
Hyperion Exclusive
Fetească Neagră 2020
Domeniile Alexandrion Rhein 1892

VINOFED Prizes

The Vinofed (World Federation of Major International Wine and Spirits competition) prizes are awarded to the best dry wines of the competition, i.e. the wine with the highest score in the white, rosé, red, and sparkling categories.

1. White Wine Category:
SOLE Chardonnay 2022
RECAȘ WINERY
Romania

2. Rosé Wine Category:
Villa Vinea Rosé Premium
Pinot Noir 2022
CASTEL VINUM / Villa Vinea Winery
Romania

3. Red Wine Category:
LUDI OFFIDA
Montepulciano, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot 2019
VELENOSI
Italy

4. Sparkling Wine Category:
Spumant Domeniile Panciu Rosé
Pinot Noir 2015
Domeniile Panciu
Romania

TRIAGO – VINARIUM Partner – augument VINOFED Prizes.

For each VINOFED prize, TRIAGO offers products worth €2,000.

CORTEVA Prizes

CORTEVA, Main partner VINARIUM, awards prizes to the wineries from Romania (by region) and the Republic of Moldova that won the most medals at VINARIUM 2023.

For ROMANIA:

Moldova
VITISIM COTESTI / Crama PANDORA  – 8 Medals

Dobrogea
AGROSERV TRADING / Domeniile CARAMAN – 6 Medals

Muntenia şi Oltenia
USAMV BUCURESTI – SDCDVP PIETROASA-ISTRITA – 13 Medals

Transilvania
CASTEL VINUM  / Crama Villa Vinea – 5 Medals

Banat
CRAMELE RECAŞ – 5 Medals

Crişana şi Maramureş
PODGORIA SILVANIA – 6 Medals

For REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA:

VINĂRIA PURCARI – 26 Medals

The prizes offered by CORTEVA for each winery consist of vine protection treatments.

Lamothe-Abiet Prizes

LAMOTHE-ABIET, VINARIUM Partner, awards prizes of €1,000 in products to the wineries with the highest score for white wines from the 2022 vintage at VINARIUM 2023.

ROJEVAS AGROINVEST
Sorai Premium Barrique
Chardonnay 2022
Romania

RECAȘ WINERY
SOLE Chardonnay 2022
Romania

DOMENIILE CUZA
Sauvignon Blanc 2022
Republic of Moldova

VINARIUM 2023, the judges

The total number of judges was 41 (21 foreigners and 20 Romanians), originating from 16 countries: Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Moldova, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, UK. The judging was carried out by 7 commissions of 5 judges/ commission. Each commission was led by a head of panel. Check out the VINARIUM 2023 judges via this link.

Jury VINARIUM 2023

The official observers present in Ploiești were:

The new way of scoring

  • The consensual average of each sample was calculated as an arithmetic average of the scores given by all jurors, after eliminating the extreme scores (i.e. the lowest and the highest scores were eliminated).
  • The new change consists in raising the thresholds for awarding medals.

Thus, 419 medals were awarded under the new OIV scoring system:

o 11 Grand Gold Medals (scores between 93-100)

o 286 Gold Medals (scores between 89-92.9)

o 122 Silver Medals (scores between 85-88.9)

Even though the minimum score for the Silver Medal, according to the OIV Regulations, is of 85 points, due to the restriction according to which only 30% of the total number of samples can receive an award, the last score for the Silver Medal was 88,00.

VINARIUM 2023 medals

You can find the full list of
VINARIUM 2023 results here.

The VINARIUM Team’s gratitude also goes to all the Partners of the contest, who supported this year’s edition.

Source: press release

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