New regional structure for IWC
The International Wine Challenge (IWC) has announced a major new regional structure that will see the competition evolve into four regional wine competitions across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the United Kingdom.
IWC says the new structure will maintain the international standards and blind tasting process that have made it one of the wine world’s most respected benchmarks.
Entries open in July for both IWC Americas and IWC Asia Pacific ahead of their first judging events later this year in Mendoza, Argentina and Adelaide, Australia.
Under the new format, wines will continue to be judged blind by expert panels within their regions before Gold medal-winning wines progress to London for International Trophy judging.
IWC says the move marks the most significant evolution in its history and reflects the changing geography of the global wine industry, with a greater focus on regional engagement, accessibility and producer connection.
Alongside the regional competitions, IWC has also announced the appointment of Regional Co-Chairs who will help lead judging, regional engagement and ambassador activity across each geography, working alongside the existing Global Co-Chairs who continue to oversee standards, Trophy judging and the wider international benchmark of the competition.
Oz Clarke OBE will move to a new position of Judge Emeritus, to assist the new team of Co-Chairs.
UK Co-Chairs: Sam Caporn MW, Peter McCombie MW, Helen McGinn and Dr Jamie Goode.
Asia Pacific Co-Chairs: Cathy van Zyl MW (South Africa), Erin Larkin (Australia), Yang Lu MS (China), and Kenichi Ohashi MW (Japan)
Americas Co-Chairs: Matías Prezioso (Argentina), Patricio Tapia (Chile), and Christy Canterbury MW (United States)
Sake Co-Chairs: - Kenichi Ohashi MW (Japan), Simon Hofstra (Netherlands), Åke Nordgren (Sweden) Natsuki Kikuya (Japan) and Jennifer Docherty MW (Canada/Hong Kong)
Europe Co-Chairs will be announced later in the year.
IWC says the new structure has also been designed to reduce international shipping requirements, strengthen regional trade relationships and allow the International Wine Challenge to bring leading judges closer to the wines, producers and cultures they are assessing.
It says that regional competitions will include judges drawn from across the international wine trade, including winemakers, buyers, sommeliers, journalists and educators, combining regional expertise with international perspective.
