The best sweet wine in the world? Tenuta di Capezzana’s Vin Santo di Carmignano Riserva

The best sweet wine in the world? It comes from Italy and it is Tenuta di Capezzana’s Vin Santo di Carmignano Riserva 2016, once again “Champion” in its category at the “International Wine Challenge” 2024 in London, a prestigious event that crossed the finish line of edition No. 40 and awarded prizes to producers from 38 countries around the world. Italy, with a total of 337 medals, finished fifth in the medal table, but can “toast” to the supremacy in the “sweet” category thanks to the historic Tenuta di Capezzana of the Contini Bonacossi family, custodian of Carmignano production, and which beat the competition in the “Iwc Sweet Wine” thanks to its Vin Santo, which defended the title, considering that it had already obtained this recognition three times, in 2022, 2021 and 2019.
Burgundy producer Edouard Delaunay is once again “Iwc Champion Red Wine” with his Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru 2021, “king” of reds. Back to France for the “bubbles”, and for the third year in a row, in fact, Rare Champagne was awarded “Iwc Champion Sparkling Wine”, thanks, in this edition, to Millésime Magnum 2008. Going, instead, to Georgia, and it is the first time that the country is awarded in this event demonstrating a growing wine quality, for the “top” white wines, with the producer Kakheti Vazisubani Estate that triumphed with the wine Kisi Qvevri 2021 becoming “Iwc Champion White Wine”. And finally Spain, Jerez celebrates the title of “Iwc Fortified Wine” champion, the category of fortified wines, a credit to Bodegas Espinosa De Los Monteros, which favorably impressed the jury with its Palo Cortado Vors.
At the overall level, France once again demonstrated its winemaking stature, taking home 4 of the 10 awards between “Champion Wines” and “Winemaker”. Winemaker Laurent Delaunay was named “Iwc Red Winemaker of the Year”. This is the fourth time this award has been given to a winemaker from Edouard Delaunay, an important entity in Burgundy. The best winemaker among whites again speaks French, with Estelle Roy of La Chablisienne being awarded the “Iwc White Winemaker of the Year” award. The surprise comes from Australia, which beats France in one of its workhorses, sparkling wines: for the first time in the history of the competition, an Australian producer has been named “Iwc Sparkling Winemaker of the Year” thanks to Ed Carr, chief winemaker of House of Arras, who took home this prestigious award that, for only the second time, went to a producer outside Champagne. Among winemakers for fortified wines, it is still Spain that makes the difference, thanks to Sergio Martínez of Emilio Lustau’s “Iwc Fortified Winemaker of the Year”, an award he has won five times before. Yet another confirmation also came from Austria where, for the fourth consecutive year, Hans Tschida of Weingut Angerhof Tschida was awarded “Iwc Sweet Winemaker of the Year”, an absolute benchmark when we consider that Tschida has won this award ten times since 2010.