Volcanic Wines International and Wine & Spirits Magazine are pleased to announce the winners of the first annual Volcanic Wine Awards.
Click here to see the results for the volcanic wines of Italy, here for wines from the rest of Europe and the Mediterranean, and here for wines from the New World.
The tasting competition was run this spring by John Szabo MS, of Volcanic Wines International, along with Joshua Greene and Corey Warren of Wine & Spirits. An important part of Szabo’s role was to vet the submissions to ensure their “volcanic authenticity.” He allowed wines into the competition if they grew “in soil derived wholly, or predominantly, from parent volcanic material.” Only magma that breaches the earth’s surface (and is then called lava) is considered volcanic by geologists. (Since granite, for instance, is an igneous rock composed of magma that cooled under the earth’s crust, it’s not technically volcanic.)
On May 6 and 7, 2024, seven panels met in the offices of Colangelo & Partners to taste a total of 186 wines grown in volcanic soils. A call for entries had gone out in late February. We presented the wines by region, in numbered glasses, along with a key sheet that listed only region, variety and vintage. Panelists determined the medals to be awarded, based on the criteria listed below. Each panel was headed by a Competition Chair—Joshua Greene, John Szabo MS and Corey Warren—who met at the end of the day on May 7 with two goals. First, to taste wines for which the panels could not agree on a medal. Second, to taste all the Gold medal wines, to decide if any should be elevated to Chairman’s Award.
Our panelists and competition chairs awarded
7 Chairman’s Awards (96+ points, Showing the Most Compelling Volcanic Expressions and Outstanding Quality)
27 Gold Medals (92 to 95 points, A Must Have on Your List)
45 Silver Medals(90 to 91 points, A Very Good Example of its Type)
37 Bronze Medals (88 to 89 points, A Good Example of its Type)
24 Honorable Mentions (86 to 87 points, A Correct Representation of its Type)
Our competition chairs provided the notes on the wines, taking the panelist’s comments into account:
John Szabo MS, author, Volcanic Wines
Joshua Greene, Editor, W&S
Corey Warren, Tastings Editor, W&S
Our tasting panels included
Gurvinder Bhatia, Quench Magazine
Julie Bramowitz, The Waverly Inn
Gabriela Davogustto, Clay
Juan Pablo Escobar, Babbo
Jhonel Faelnar, Atomix
Christy Frank, Copake Wine Works
Karen Goodlad, City Tech
Mary Gorman MW
Pascaline Lepeltier, MS, Chambers
Nacho Monclús, T. Edward Wines
Amy Racine, JF Restaurants
Harrison Spelman, The Waverly Inn
Patricio Tapia, Descorchados
Tara Q. Thomas, JancisRobinson.com