The top 40 wines of 2022 according to the IWSC

Earlier in the year, the IWSC (International Wine and Spirit Competition) named its wine producers and products of 2022, after a rigorous round of tastings. The list of trophy winners provided a snapshot of rising trends from the world of wine, as well as offering an insight into exactly which bottles and winemakers should be on the wine lover’s radar.

But with such a diversity of wine entered into the competition this year, we’ve decided to take a look beyond the trophies and are sharing a list of 40 of the highest-scoring wines from around the world.

Kanonkop was in good company, with its wine among a fleet of top scoring South African bottlings at the IWSC 2022

In the IWSC’s top 40 wines of 2022, you’ll find a strong showing of South African wine, with a total of 12 wines standing out and scoring highly – the country’s signature Pinotage included – among expert judges. Plenty of port, sweet and fortified wines shone too and are recommended below – just in time for some last-minute Christmas shopping. Of course, you’ll find Champagne on the list, but there’s also a handful of standout Prosecco bottlings in the top 40, proving that the popular sparkling style is continuing to come up in quality. And in terms of fellow wine regions on the rise, you’ll find a Cabernet Franc from Mexico and an orange wine from Georgia in the list below, too.

The wines in this top 40 all picked up a gold medal from the IWSC 2022, with judging carried out in the spring. To decide on which wines were worthy of a gold, a full suite of expert judges who work within the industry blind-tasted their way through styles from across hundreds of regions before scoring each wine out of 100; to achieve a gold medal, wines had to score 95 points and up.

So, without further ado, dive into the best wines of 2022 according to the IWSC.

Douro Valley vineyards in the sun — The Douro Valley: Port shone brightly at the IWSC 2022, with Barros Colheita taking the top spot with a score of 98/100

HOW DO WE JUDGE THESE WINES?

We run a tightly structured, rigorous wine tasting process. That means that each wine sample is pre-poured into numbered glasses and assessed blindly by the judges. Most importantly, our IWSC wine judges are experts in their field, who work across all sectors of the wine industry. For evidence, see our full list of judges.

HOW DO WE SCORE THESE WINES?

Only the best wines sampled receive a Gold or Silver award. For example, to win Gold, wines have to score between 95 and 100 points. Meanwhile, Silver wines range from 90 to 94 points. Click here to read more on our scoring system.

MORE FROM CLUB OENOLOGIQUE

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