Sierre, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Awards given at the Mondial du Pinot Noir wine competition Friday, part of the events at Vinea, Switzerland’s largest wine fair which runs 1-2 September, show a growing international interest in the Swiss-based competition, now in its 10th year. Four top prizes, the Grandes Médailles d’Or, went to wines from Chile, France and Switzerland. One-third of the 1,050 wines came from outside Switzerland, with France and Germany each providing about 10% of the wines judged. The Mondial is the only international competition for this single variety. It is best known as the grape that produces Burgundy’s great wines, but there is a growing consensus, said Mike Favre, president of the Mondial du Pinot Noir, that despite efforts to see if there is a Pinot Noir that is typical, "we’re seeing great diversity with just one variety."
Pinot Noir is considered by winemakers to be one of the most difficult wines to produce well, and even among winemakers who were tasting the more than 300 bottles that won awards, there were disagreements about what constitutes a good Pinot Noir, based in part on national tendencies. A Belgian and a Swiss found the top-honours Chilean wine too sweet, while a Chilean oenologue found some of the Swiss and French wines short on interesting aromas.
Charles Van Havre, of Kreglinger in Tasmania, Australia, waxed poetic about the Swiss wines. "We entered two years ago and won awards for four of our wines, but I saw the number of Swiss wines and wasn’t really sure about the value of this. So this year I made a point of tasting the Swiss wines, to see what we were up against, and I couldn’t believe how good they are! Switzerland has some superb wines but they are the world’s worst communicators – they don’t tell anyone about them."
The Swiss Grande Médaille winners were:
* Weingut Thomas Marugg, Flaesch, Graubuenden, for Flaescher Blauburgunder Barrique, Flaesch, 2005
* Miège, Cave les Deux Crêtes, Gérald Clavien, for Réserve Badrutt’s Palace Pinot Noir, Tête de Cuvée, AOC Valais, 2005
Other winners are listed on the Mondial site.