New wineries and wines appear around the world every year. How can consumers select the best wines from these? Wine competitions and ratings from both abroad and in Russia can be useful in this case. These are similar to each other in some ways but differ in others; however, this does not mean that any one is better or worse than the others. We’d like to show you the result of a comparison of six Russian competitions and ratings. The value of each competition and rating can only be determined by consumers based on the criteria that are of greatest importance to them. All information used for comparison is taken from publicly available sources.
| Comparison indicator | Russian Wines Competition 2018 | South Russia 2019 | A. Sarkisyan Guide 2020 | SVVR Cup 2018 | Roskachestvo Guide 2019 | Lev Golitsyn International Wine Competition 2019 |
| Number in jury, including: | 9 | 21 | 1 | Incomplete data | 34 | 16 |
| - Russian experts | 2 | 19 | 1 | Approximately 30, ND on complete list | 31 | 7 |
| - foreign experts | 7 | 2 | - | 5 | 3 | 9 |
| Qualifications of jury members, including: | ||||||
| - Master of Wine | 5 | - | - | 2 | ND | 4 |
| - Weinakademiker/ DipWSET | 4 | - | - | 1 | ND | 1 |
| - WSET Diploma (DipWSET) | - | - | - | 1 | ND | 1 |
| - Other (lacking specialised education in the wine sector / Russian, foreign sommelier schools, etc.) | - | 21 | 1 | ND | ND | ND |
| Division of jury into separate tasting panels to assess wines by category | No | No | - | Stage 1 - Yes / Stage 2 - No | Yes | Yes |
| Preselection of wines | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Scoring system | 100 point, OIV | 100 point, OIV | International 100 point | International 100 point | 100 point, GOST 32051-2013 | 100 point, OIV |
| Number of samples of Russian wines | 180 | 144 | 348 + 18 fortified wines scored by the "less detailed" rating system | 1st stage - 227 wines (7 of which are fortified); 2nd stage - 123 wines (7 of which are fortified) | 332 (29 of which are fortified) | 388 (including foreign wines, natural sweet and fortified) of which 245 are Russian |
| The number of prize categories for wines | 4 | 8 | - | 6 | 5 | 8 |
| Information about the competition results | Free of charge | Free of charge | Paid | Free of charge | Free of charge | Free of charge |
| Wine recommendation to consumers starting from (score) | 80 points / 100 | Medal zone from 80 points | 84 points / 100 | ND | 78 points / 100 | ND |
| Extended information about samples (based on tasting results), tasting notes | Yes | No | Tasting notes for 89 wines (24% of total) | No | Yes | No |
| Information about eliminated samples: reasons for removing wines from tasting | Yes | No | - | No | No | No |
| Tasting format | Blind | Blind | Open | Blind | Blind | Blind |
| Number of wines tasted per day | No more than 70 | No more than 45 | ND | ND | No more than 45 | No more than 45 |
| System for processing the tasting results (scores) | VinAgora (Hungary) | Counting panel | - | ND | Sensory laboratory of JSC "MVKZ" KiN" | ND |
| Presence of independent personnel to process tasting results (assessments) | VinAgora (Hungary) | Counting panel | - | ND | Sensory laboratory of JSC "MVKZ" KiN" | ND |
| Presence of reference samples | No | "Calibration" sample before first tasting session | No | No | No | No |
| Presence of foreign wines | No | Yes (Republic of Abkhazia) | Yes (Kazakhstan) | Yes (Republic of Abkhazia) | No | Yes |
| Price category of wines | All categories | All categories | All categories | All categories | Up to 1000 rubles | All categories |
| Source of samples | Retail purchase | Submission by producers | 1st stage - tasting at wineries; 2nd stage - retail purchase | Submission by producers | Retail purchase | Submission by producers |
| Documents confirming purchase of wines in retail chains | Yes | - | No | - | No | - |
| Payment by wine producers to participate in the competition (per sample) | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Participation in the competition of wines produced by the organisers / sponsors of the competition | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Contest site / section on the site with full information | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Contest rules / Award information | Present | Present | Present | ND | Present | Present |
| Professional biography of judges / tasters with qualifications (publicly available) | Yes | No | Yes | Russian experts - No; Foreign experts - Yes | No | No |
| Proof of origin of grapes (public access) | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Period | End of May 2018 | Mid-April 2019 | 2019 | Early September 2018 / early October 2018 | Summer / autumn 2019 | End of October 2019 |
*ND – no data.
LEONID FADEEV, Stage 2 MW Student, WSET / IWSC “The Future 50” winner, Weinakademiker, DipWSET, WorldSom Magister Sommelier, Executive Director of Cote Rocheuse JSC
KIRILL BARDAKOV, Chief Winemaker, Cote Rocheuse JSC