80% of wines entered in the Decanter competition come away with awards

hereas French competitions, in particular, and those generally complying with standards set by the International Organisation of Vine & Wine cannot exceed 33% of medals, many medal stickers are very leniently awarded in other countries. The 20th Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA), which has just released its awards list, assessed 18,250 wines in bottles and boxes this year, setting a new record after the 18,244 judged in 2022.

The competition organised by the British wine magazine is particularly generous when it comes to accolades. 50 wines were described as ‘Best in Show’, scoring from 97 to 100/100; 125 platinum medals were awarded (97 to 100/100); 705 gold (95 and 96/100); 5,604 silver (90 to 94/100); and 8,165 bronze (86 to 89/100). That’s a total of 14,649 accolades, equating to a success rate of 80.4% for the DWWA. The 3,601 entries that came away empty-handed is equivalent to the number of medals awarded to France – 3,185, or 20% of the awards.

Importantly, the business model of what describes itself as the “world’s most influential wine competition” relies on the number of medals awarded. Entering a wine costs €200 (+€20 entry fee per company and €69 shipping fee), and a roll of 1,000 bottle stickers costs €64 whatever the medal. The bottle sticker premium could promote a generous approach to printing the golden labels.

At competitions in the English-speaking world, “the achievement is more about not getting a medal than getting one”, was the tongue-in-cheek response by Dr Fabrizio Bucella on TikTok.