The WineHunter Award 2020: here are our winners.

Sunday, August 16 has finally seen the publication of the The WineHunter Award 2020 online guide. For those who do not know, this is a prestigious award that is given every year with the aim of identifying the excellence primarily in the field of wine but also in beer, spirits, and artisanal food products.

In this article, we will talk about all those wine realities included in the 2020 online guide that have thus been awarded the The WineHunter Award this year. An additional selection is that made thanks to the Top 100 Wine, where you can find all the Gold awarded wines in the 2020 edition.
 

The WineHunter Award: what is it and how is it awarded

The award is given to wines that, following a tasting and careful evaluation by a team of experts, are rated on a scale of points ranging from a minimum of 90 points out of 100.

It is precisely this objective and impartial procedure that guarantees the final consumer the undisputed superior quality of the product. There are three score ranges that consequently award three different prizes:

• The WineHunter Award RED (between 90 and 92.99 points out of 100);
• The WineHunter Award GOLD (from 93 to 95.99 points out of 100);
• The WineHunter Award PLATINUM (from 96 to 100 points).

On Spaghetti&Mandolino you can find the wines awarded with all three of these awards. However, we will have to wait until October for the publication of the Platinum awards from the 2020 edition.

Currently, among the winners of the The WineHunter 2020 Red or Gold, there are 9 supply wineries of Spaghetti&Mandolino. How to recognize the awarded products? Simple: they have the sticker with the symbol of The WineHunter Award.

Spaghetti&Mandolino, however, has a section dedicated exclusively to wines awarded with The WineHunter Award where you can primarily find the winners from 2019 and 2020. As time goes on, the references and wineries will increase, so keep an eye on us!
 

Wine - Tasting Methods

Once registered on The WineHunter website, you can send, within the established deadlines, the tasting samples of each reference that will then be tasted.

Each tasting evaluates no more than forty wines with batteries of up to 5 wines and the bottles are opened at least two hours before the tasting itself.

Each commission must be provided with the following information:

• grape variety
• wine production
• vintage
• region of origin
• type

The tasting commissions consist of 8 and each is made up of at least three members, including technicians, sommeliers, bartenders, wine merchants, sector journalists, and wine enthusiasts. The central commission of Merano, on the other hand, is composed of the original The WineHunter Helmuth Köcher and two other members.
 

Wine - Tasting Criteria

The criteria used to taste and thus evaluate a wine are very specific as they must guarantee the utmost impartiality of the taster and are:

• intensity;
• complexity;
• elegance;
• extraordinary personality;
• raw material;
• tradition;
• sustainability;
• professionalism;
• artisanal production;
• indigenous grape varieties;
• territoriality.

It is also important to underline that the wine tasting, more than other products, requires a coded and shared evaluation scale by professionals in the sector, promoted by organizations like UIOE (International Union of Wine Tasters) and OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine).

The wine analysis performed involves a visual, olfactory, and gustatory evaluation that allows for an increasing approach to the very essence of the wine, thus evaluating all its characteristics.

It is precisely the combination of all these criteria that allows for the identification of a score range and therefore the assignment of the corresponding prize to the wine in question.
 

The WineHunter Award: what does it mean?

Obtaining the The WineHunter Award essentially means two things: seeing the quality of one's wine recognized through the official diploma recognition of The WineHunter Award and being able to expand one's business opportunities thanks to the prestige that such an award represents in itself, an element that can strongly differentiate from the competition.

However, obtaining the award also means new opportunities that will allow for an increase in the visibility of the winery and consequently of the wines because it allows the awarded entities to access the selection of the Merano WineFestival and the Previews of the Merano WineFestival, but also to participate in events organized by TheWineHunter worldwide.

Look for all the wines with the sticker right away or visit the dedicated section exclusively for The WineHunter!

S&M