Vinitaly expands 5Star natural wine competition

Vinitaly has revised the entry requirements for its Wine Without Walls portion of its international 5Star Wines tasting competition, which showcases natural, organic and biodynamic wines, opening up the competition to more producers.

5StarWines – the Book from the 2018 selection features also a dedicated Wine Without Walls section.

Veronafiere and Vinitaly established the Wine Without Walls section of the international tasting 5StarWines in 2016, with the aim of promoting natural, organic and biodynamic, and low sulfite wines.

The tasting serves as the basis for the selection of wines chosen to be included in the annual 5StarWines Guide, with the current 2019 edition featuring a shortlist of 601 wines, out of the 2,733 submitted for last year’s tasting event. Last year’s edition saw 24 organic and biodynamic wines make it into the final selection of the guide.

This year, the Wine Without Walls segment will benefit from a revised assessment method of wines entered, two brand new trophies, and a new panel chairman, Master of Wine Richard Kershaw, alongside biodynamic wine writer Monty Waldin, who is also general chairman of 5StarWines.

Fellow judges also include: Gill Gordon Smith (Vinitaly International Academy Italian wine expert and CEO at Fall from Grace), Regine Lee (head of customer support at Liberty Wines), and Richard Barnes (founder and editor at Grape Collective).

REVAMPED JUDGING GUIDELINES

This year the Wine Without Walls segment of the guide will pen its doors to those producing wines with sulfite levels below 80mg/lt, an increase from the previous limit of 50mg/lt. By doing this, organisers hope to make the event more accessible to a larger number of producers.

“This year, we decided to raise slightly the permitted limit of total sulfites for the entries,” explained Monty Waldin, general chairman of 5StarWines and scientific director of Wine Without Walls.

“Our rationale behind this change was to make Wine Without Walls slightly more inclusive but without going so far as to include in the tasting absolutely every single organic, natural or biodynamic wine ever made. We are eager to test this new implementation to see what effect it has on the types of entries we receive. We are interested in receiving feedback and suggestions from wine producers. Our wish is that Wine Without Walls remains inclusive, credible, rigorous, and transparent, whilst also recognising that this field of winemaking is by implication as dynamic, challenging, rewarding and chameleon-like as the wines themselves.”

Also, from now on, wines entered into the Wine Without Walls jury, will be judged using the same numerical assessment method used for the wider 5StarWines grand tasting. The panel of judges will assign scores to each wine presented, based on their “visual, olfactory, and gustatory” components, with an average score out of 100 then tallied.

Wines scoring 90 points out of 100 or more will be included in the next 5StarWines guide in 2020.

The selection process will also be enhanced by the addition of two Wine Without Walls trophies: ‘Best Wine Without Walls Winery’, awarded to the producer who gets the best averaged out results across the board; and ‘Best Wine Without Walls Wine’, awarded to the wine with the highest score.

The 2019 tasting will be held in Verona on 3 April, ahead of the Vinitaly trade fair. For more information on entering email 5star@vinitalytour.com.

Richard Kershaw MW, the 2019 panel chairman for Wine Without Walls