Every wine, or wine type, has its “best in the world” competition these days, it seems. Sparkling wine too of course. And since we are getting closer to the peak sparkling wine season of the year the news of the results of The World’s Best Sparkling Wine competition (or Effervescents du Monde) is timely.
This year it was the 12th edition of the competition with over 600 competing wines. As in all competitions, only those who participate can win a medal, so this denomination of “world’s best” should of course be taken with a pinch of salt (as in all competitions). On the other hand, sparkling wines, more than most, rely on fame and brand reputation, so a blind tasting competition is certainly an interesting opportunity to find some really good sparkling wines that are not among the “beautiful and famous” world-wide brands.
We at BKWine are regularly part of juries in wine competitions and it is always an interesting experience. It is not always the wines that one expects that come out on top. It is also a very humbling experience to taste wines totally blind, as is often but not always the case in competitions. Tasting wines in that kind of a context gives you a lot of scepticism towards people who claim to be able to recognise various wines totally blind… But these competitions are not about identifying and guessing what wine it is, it is “simply” about evaluating the quality.
But back to the “world’s best sparkling wines”, to give you some inspiration of the end-of-year purchases!
The top-ten list actually contains 13 wines; the finish was so close so there was a number of ex-aequo! France, Switzerland, Spain and New Zealand are represented on the list:
| Top 10* sparklling wines in the world (meilleurs Effervescents du Monde®) 2014 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Produits | Producteurs | Pays |
| Champagne Chassenay d'Arce - Confidences Rosé Brut | Chassenay d'Arce | France |
| Grand Vin Mousseux - Mauler -Cuvée des Bénédictins Brut | Mauler et Cie Sa | Switzerland |
| Crémant de Bourgogne Veuve Ambal Grande Cuvée Brut - CR2451 | Veuve Ambal | France |
| Champagne R. Dumont et Fils Solera Réserve Brut | Champagne R. Dumont et Fils | France |
| Cava Anna Codorniu Blanc de Blancs Reserva Brut | Codorniu | Spain |
| Crémant de Limoux "Tête de Cuvée" Brut | Calmel & Joseph | France |
| Crémant de Bourgogne Louis Bouillot Grande Réserve Perle de Vigne Brut | Maison Louis Bouillot - FGV Boisset | France |
| Crémant de Bourgogne Veuve Ambal Grande Cuvée Brut - CR2445 | Veuve Ambal | France |
| Cava Freixenet Casa Sala - Cuvée de Prestige Brut Nature 2006 | Freixenet SA | Spain |
| Champagne Cuvée Vieilles Vignes Brut | Champagne Dom Caudron | France |
| Champagne Rosé Brut | Champagne Philippe Fourrier | France |
| Crémant d'Alsace Brut Réserve | Maison Pierre Sparr Successeurs | France |
| Sileni Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc | Sileni Estates Limited | New Zealand |
| * Some wines were ex-aequo so the list contains 13 wines | ||
Certainly some good ones to try for New Year, or just any day!
More information and all medals: effervescents-du-monde.com
