Organized by Wines of Argentina and the Argentine Wine Corporation, the sixth issue of the contest will be held from February 19 to 24 in the city of Mendoza.
Created as a means to evaluate and award the quality and progress of the Argentine wine industry, the AWA has earned its place as the most important competition in the local calendar of events.
The AWA has taken place every year since 2007 and the makeup of its panel of judges and presenters at the concurrent “Successful Wines and Styles” seminar reveals a focus on Argentina’s key export markets (the USA, Canada, Brazil, the UK and Scandinavia). In its sixth edition, under the theme “World’s Top Winemakers,” the AWA will gather in Argentina some of the best winemakers in the world.
The event involves three activities that take place in the course of four days: a blind tasting of Argentine wines carried out by a top world-class panel of judges, a seminar where the panel members present their evaluation of the quality of the wines, and an award-giving cocktail in which the main representatives of the trade come together to celebrate the winning wineries.
In 2011 more than 700 wines participated in the contest, reaching the maximum quota of samples allowed, and this record number is expected to be hit again in 2012.
For the first time, top winemakers of the world are invited to participate in this local contest as judges. This represents a radical change with respect to previous years in terms of the kind of profile selected.
By means of strict selection criteria, the Argentina Wine Awards guarantees the attendance of a highly qualified panel of experts, whose degree of technical expertise and unbiased appraisal of the worldwide wine industry are up to the high standards of the competition. As every year, the international judges will be joined by six prestigious winemaking experts from Argentina.
The competition represents a wonderful learning experience for all the participants. The judges will deepen their knowledge of Argentina and its wines, and the wineries will learn about the wine styles and quality features that best fit their export markets.