WINE Hungary’s success at the World Wine-Tasting Championships

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HUNGARY TRIUMPHS AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OF WINE-TASTING

IT IS THE VERY FIRST TIME THAT HUNGARIANS BEAT THE REST OF THE WORLD IN BLIND TASTING The Hungarian team emerged as the winner in the final the World Championship of Wine-Tasting at (Championnat du monde de dégustation La RVF). The Hungarians finished first in a fiercely competitive line-up featuring the best tasters of 27 nations including last year’s winner, the host country, France.

The venue for this year’s final of the Championnat du Monde de Dégustation (‘World Championship of Wine-tasting’) was the Palais des Papes (‘Papal Palace’) in Avignon, France. The event draws an everincreasing crowd and in this year’s final, there were 27 national teams competing. The fourmember teams (that could include one foreign national) were pitted against each other to show their competence, acumen and sensory talents. The list of competitors included the most prestigious wine producing nations like France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the United States and South Africa. There were also some other countries present whose wine production is less significant but as importers they have developed a profound understanding of wine like Japan, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Among such illustrious rivals, the victory of the Hungarian team is a tremendous achievement.

A formidable task

During the competition, teams had to identify 12 wines by correctly stating the grape variety, the appellation, the vintage and the producer. Though the rules are easy to understand, the task was formidable. The competitors could not even see the bottles’ shapes and were not allowed to receive any kind of external assistance. It was like a university exam: no phones, no internet. All members of each team had to come to a common decision through careful analysis and discussion. The team able to identify the most categories received the highest score and was crowned the world champion. The task was made even more daunting by the fact that the wines might come from any corner of the world, their age may widely vary and, of course, can be made of any grape variety. This year, the wines to be identified included not just Old-World samples but also items from Argentina, Australia and South Africa.

12 points ahead of the world

This year’s challenge seemed particularly tough. Following Round 6, the Hungarian team took the lead and from then on, never looked back. The runners-up were Belgium while Spain came third. With an overall score of 166 points, the Hungarian team finished 12 points ahead of the rest of the best wine-tasters in the world. Members of the winning team are Attila Aranyos (Captain), Laura Rabcsánszki, Dr. Levente Molnár and Didier Sanchez.

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