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in absolutely the correct fashion without OIV ries which were laughed at 10 years ago are
patronage. I think we‘d all be happy to have now producing wine in extremely good qua-
a controlling body which is responsible for all lities. We are noticing this primarily in judges‘
competitions. reactions, who are very surprised when they
are given information about the wines when
Will the competitions change under the the blind tasting is over.
new conditions from a technical standpoint? Technical innovations and further develop-
Here you have to differentiate between ments naturally also result in advantages in
technical conditions in wine production the competitions. A more precise assignment
and the implementation of competitions. when creating the flights, better monitoring
Improved conditions in the production of through analysis, faster and more precise ra-
wine have naturally resulted in the quality of ting during tasting, and much more. The me-
wines getting better and better. Wine enthusi- dal tables are also shifting at OIV tastings. We
asts will now disagree with me and refer to are only allowed to give awards to 30% of the
these wines as mass-produced wines while wines submitted.
singing the praises of outstanding wines. Due to their high quality, this 30% is almost
These wines will naturally continue to exist, exclusively populated by gold medal winners,
and they constitute an important part of the because of course the highest number of po-
market. But normal consumers want to drink ints goes down until the cut-off at the 30%
a bottle of wine in the evening which doesn‘t mark is reached. Not much changes in the
cost more than 7 or 8 euros, and in most ca- absolute top range of wines with great gold
ses even significantly lower than that. Other medals, but silver medals are rarely awarded
wines are financially unfeasible for them. And because there is such a large number of qua-
the quality is constantly increasing in this re- lity wines at gold level.
gard thanks to technical innovations. Count- But, on top of all the technical innovations,
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