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History & background

The International Wine Award was first held in 2001. Even at its debut, it registered 2235 entries from all the major wine-growing regions in the world. And record participation in 2008 shows just how important the competition has meanwhile become in Germany. 5343 wines were entered. Today MUNDUSvini is the largest officially recognised wine competition in the world.


Number of wines entered 2001-2009




Since 2002, the Wine Award has been under the patronage of the international wine organisations OIV (Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin, Paris) and Union Internationale des Œnologues (UIOE, Paris). In addition, MUNDUSvini is a member of the Fédération Mondiale des Grands Concours de Vins et de Spiritueux in Canada (VinoFed). 2003 saw its official recognition by the State of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, so that now inclusion of the awards won in bottle labels is permitted.

Target
The target of the competition is to promote quality and the marketing of the wines entered. The awards are intended to offer producers, wine-growers, importers and consumers a forum which, firstly, permits a comparison of wines and offers valuable help with decision-making and orientation when buying wine and, secondly, reaches a wide public. While welcomed by wine customers as a helpful orientation aid, awards provide producers with recognition of their hard work. They can measure their own standard of performance in international competition and the awards they win permit prestigious labelling of the successful products for marketing.

Tasting
The tasting assessment system corresponds to that of the international oenologists' association (UIOE) and the OIV, which has been developed for international tastings. It is a mathematical scheme providing weighted points for the criteria of appearance, smell, taste and harmony/overall impression. Ideally, a wine can be given 100 points as the total of all the criteria. Each wine is tasted and assessed by a commission that comprises 5-7 jurors and must have 4/7 international and 3/7 German tasters. Under OIV regulations, no more than one-third of products entered are to be given awards.

Marketing
A special MUNDUSvini supplement with a print run of more than 100,000 copies reports in detail on prize-winning wines and their producers and is included with all the wine, beverage and hospitality trade magazines published by Meininger Verlag. The regional and national press (TV, radio, daily newspapers, business papers) also reports widely on the event. Our research database on the internet gives detailed information on all the award-winning wines and their producers.

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