Rest of the Old World - Red

Our entries here covered a large spread of the continent – from Cyprus and Croatia to Georgia and Slovakia, via Lebanon and Switzerland. But we didn’t get the kind of numbers from these countries that we usually do, and certain countries – most notably Romania and Bulgaria – were conspicuous by their absence.

And without these big-hitters, which typically bring in a few Golds every year, overall numbers and really good wines, specifically, were rather thin on the ground.

Somms are open to unusual countries – just see how the likes of Hungary, Greece and Israel have blossomed from this part of the competition over the past five years. But for the countries featured here there’s a lot of work still to do on this showing – both in the winery and in terms of driving entries.

From The Tasting Teams

‘This is more of a category for a fine-dining restaurant with a big list, where guests can compare wines and a sommelier can recommend something similar to a wine they like, but from an obscure country.’ Lionel Periner, team leader

‘I was really rooting for Lebanon, but they didn’t deliver. They were very dry, and lacking in personality.’ Claire Love, Loves Consultancy

‘We were suspicious [of the whites] initially, but the quality here was solid. I was very impressed with the commerciality and quality of almost all the wines, particularly the non-qvevri, modern, dry, Georgian white wines.’ Tim Smith, Winesurfer Consulting

‘The reds were all over the place, with different styles of winemaking, different abilities, and different amounts of money spent on them – and sometimes not spent well.’ Tom Forrest, team leader

‘It’s a shame when winemakers decide they’re going to throw out the potential of the character of their indigenous grapes and mask them with a lot of oak.’ Joshua Castle, Noble Rot

‘What a fun thing to put on your list!’ Tim Smith, Winesurfer Consulting