Our congratulations to Château Vignelaure whose La Source Rosé 2012 was awarded a gold medal at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards.
This is Decanter Magazine’s 10th anniversary of the awards and the judging panel reads like a who’s who of the wine industry.  The judging process took place over the course of a week, with 219 judges from 27 different countries flying in to take part.  These are some of the finest and best respected palates in the wine trade - 75 judges were Masters of Wine (and yes, our very own Jane Boyce was indeed one of them), 13 were Master Sommeliers (3 of whom were the best sommelier in the world at various points in time), along with regional experts, writers and critics.
Between them, the judging panel sniffed, swirled and spat their way through 14,362 wines from all corners of the globe; which is probably not quite as much fun as it sounds!  The wines are assessed in categories, ensuring like is compared with like, and the judges are arranged in teams according to their specialist knowledge and the wines are served blind.  It’s a bit like a cross between The Voice and the X Factor but with rather less drama and without the dancing animals.
All in all, 229 gold medals were awarded this year so to win one is really very impressive and a fabulous acknowledgement of the hard work and talent of the team atCh Vignelaure.  Well done!