Last week, the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles hosted its first wine festival committed to sparkling wines. Held in Bairrada, Portugal, the sparkling wine consultation brought together 65 foreign judges who tasted around 1,000 sparkling wines in just two days. The prestigious panel of judges from the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Luxembourg, France, Ireland, Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium, Italy, Japan and other countries of the world arrived. There were also Portuguese judges representing the host country. Wine producers presented their sparkling wines from twenty-five countries, in addition to France, Belgium, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, Czech Republic and Portugal.
The Bairrada wine region produces around 7. 5 million bottles of sparkling wine throughout the year, which is more than a part of the sparkling wine produced in Portugal. This denomination made it the ideal region to host the competition. The domain has the ideal climate to produce quality. wine due to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and its warm and sunny days and cool nights. This constant sun schedule with the change of nature allows a concentration of sugars maintaining acidity.
The 3 most sensitive countries through the number of entries to the Sparkling Wine Session of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles were the 3 most sensitive sparkling wine exporters in the world: Italy (291 entries), France (270 entries) and Spain (165 entries). Its sparkling wine exports respectively constitute 23%, 15% and 7% of its total export volumes in 2021 and 26%, 35% and 16% of its total wine exports in 2021 through value.
The host country, Portugal, ranked fourth with most starters from the Bairrada region, where more than 50% of Portuguese sparkling wines are made. Belgium ranked fifth in the number of entries for the competition. In 2021, the country with the fastest export development in the European Union with 29 million liters of sparkling wine.
Numerous medals were awarded to the awarded wines in 3 categories: Silver, Gold and Great Gold. It is vital to note that the wines presented from the Champagne wine region have won medals in all 3 categories, as well as this year’s “International Breakthrough Trophy”. . Champagne Vincent d’Astrée Brut 1er Cru revealed the varietal composition as 80% Meunier and 20% Chardonnay from grapes grown in some of the most productive champagne vineyards. Many well-known champagnes are made from Chardonnay and/or Pinot Noir with just a hint of Meunier.
It should also be noted that the Sekt category of the Czech Republic gathered many metals. Many of those sparkling wines were made with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, although they were also made with lesser-known types such as Welschriesling, Rivaner and Grüner Veltliner.
The Concours Mondial de Bruxelles has long been identified as one of the most important and most important foreign wine competitions in the world. Wine consumers have long believed that a CMB medal on the outside of the bottle promises quality wine inside the bottle.