The top 40 wines of 2023 according to the IWSC

Earlier this year, the IWSC (International Wine and Spirit Competition) named its wine producers and products of 2023, after an extensive and meticulous series of tastings. The list of trophy winners provides insights into the rising trends from the world of wine, as well as offering sound advice as to which bottles and producers wine lovers should be seeking out.

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

A harvest in Margaret River, Australia - a region that performed well at IWSC 2023

In the IWSC’s top 40 wines of 2023, you’ll find a strong showing from Australia, with a total of seven wines standing out and scoring highly – the country’s Margaret River region faring especially well – with the expert judges. Plenty of port, sweet and fortified wines shone too and are recommended below – perfect timing if you’re starting to think about Christmas presents. Of course, you’ll find several Champagnes on the list but there are also some wines from less renowned regions in Cyprus, Turkey and Georgia, demonstrating the level of quality now emerging from these countries.

The wines in this top 40 all picked up a gold medal from the IWSC 2023, 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 or more.

So, without further ado, take a look through the best wines of 2023 according to the IWSC.

HOW DO WE JUDGE THESE WINES?

We run a 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.

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