History

Year 2022 - II Edition

II° International Oenological Competition "Serendipity Wines"

DATES: 26^th, 27^th, 28^th MAY 2022

LOCATION: Grumello del Monte (BG)

ENROLLED SAMPLES: 119

ENROLLED COUNTRIES: 8

COMMITTEES: 5

JUDGES: 40

JUDGES' COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN: 14

AWARDS: 35

15 GREAT GOLD MEDALS

20 GOLD MEDALS

Visits:

THURSDAY AFTERNOON

Visit to Distilleria Peroni Maddalena.
Welcome Dinner at Cascina dei Filagni (Grumello del Monte).

FRIDAY

Visit to Iseo Lake and Sarnico

SATURDAY

Valcalepio Moscato Passito Focus @La Bognatica Vineyard

SERENDIPITY WINES: UNEXPECTED RESULTS

Some would use the Latin expression nomen omen (meaning the destiny it's in the name itself).
The results of the second International Oenological Competition for sweet, fortified, and aromatized wines Serendipity Wines 2022 which took place in Grumello del Monte (BG) last 27th May were really unexpected.

"We couldn't expect anything different from a Competition that takes its name from the English word to express The pleasure of discovering something unexpected and unpredictable;
the incredible discovery of something pleasant while searching for something else" states the director of the Competition, the oenologist Sergio Cantoni.

119 samples and 99 awards.
Analyzing the rating given by the committees, in fact, something interesting caught our attention. 99 samples got to the rates appointed to a Gold Medal award. OIV (Organisation International de la Vigne et du Vin) regulation, though, states that only 30% of the total amount of samples enrolled could be awarded an actual medal.

Still, the organizing committee declared that this is a unique result, nothing similar ever happened in a competition before.

"119 samples and 15 Great Gold Medals. I suppose the wines were really incredible!" goes on Cantoni.

Let's talk numbers.
119 samples were enrolled from 8 Countries (Austria, Canada, Italy, Portugal, Czech Republic, Serbia, Spain, and Hungary), and 40 judges (28 technicians and 12 journalists) were summoned in Grumello del Monte (Bergamo) from 14 Countries (Czech Republic, France, Columbia, Cuba, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, USA, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Moldova, and Sweden) to taste the samples.

5 committees worked on the rating of sweet, aromatized, and fortified wines enrolled in the 5 categories of the Competition Serendipity Wines 2022.
For the first time in the history of this Competition, the judges used tablets to rate the wines.

Cantoni further explains the hard research job brought about this last year by The Road of Valcalepio Wines and Bergamaschi Flavors, Consorzio Tutela Valcalepio, and Centro Studi Assaggiatori Brescia, "As organizers, we focused on experimentation. We realized that these are not easy wines to taste and evaluate. They don't have a precise definition (some call them meditation wines or conversation wines) but they don't have specific rules for tasting and exact terms to express and define the tasting experience too".

Having the chance to collect the ratings through tablets gave the organizers the opportunity to elaborate on the data immediately.
Already from a first overlook of the ratings, the organizers reported interesting notes stating, for example, that the actual 5 categories defined by OIV for these wines are too technical but don't really express the emotions of the committees tasting the samples. More specifically, the actual classification establishes that wines that do not share the same technical characteristics have to be tasted in the same category.

"We can already anticipate that something is going to change for the 2023 Competition" adds Cantoni "both in regards to the evaluation and the promotion of the samples enrolled".

Serendipity Wines, in fact, represents not only a moment of tasting but also an important promotional and communication moment for the hosting territory.

"We always aim at organizing a rich and interesting program," says Enrico Rota, president of The Road of Valcalepio Wines and Bergamaschi Flavors "for this second edition the main focus was on Grumello del Monte which hosted both the tasting session and the gala dinner. The main character of the competition is our territory: Grumello del Monte but also Sarnico and the Iseo Lake".

The program also involved a visit to the Distillery Maddalena Peroni in Gussago and a special tasting focused on Valcalepio Moscato Passito DOC and Moscato di Scanzo DOCG at Bognatica vineyards in Castelli Calepio.

Every detail of the event is relevant, "underlines Cantoni "from the hotel you choose (in this case Viola and Fontana Santa in Grumello del Monte) to the service during the tasting session (managed once again by the students of IPSSAR Institute of San Pellegrino Terme with the supervision by AIS). The experiences that the guests live during the competition inevitably influence their tasting experience. We try our best to create a cohesive and close group in order to let our guests enjoy all the programs in the easiest and more relaxed way possible. We try to create a positive environment in order to have the best tasting experience possible".

This is the reason why the organizers encouraged the committees to focus on the tasting and minimize the personalization of the results. "We don't want that a committee tells us if they like that kind of wine," says Cantoni. "We want them to evaluate the wine from a sensorial point of view and to express the sensations they felt with a rating. We want them to express their judgment fully, using the whole range of votes. We don't want hesitant judgments. We invited the judges to emphasize their sensations. We want to see the real essence of the samples in the ratings".

And it appears that the committees accepted this invitation with enthusiasm.

35 were the medals awarded: 15 Great Gold Medals and 20 Gold Medals divided into the 5 categories established by OIV.

9 Great Gold Medals were awarded to Italian Wines and 2 each went to Hungary, Serbia, and Portugal.

Serendipity Wines 2022 was really surprising, unexpected ... Serendipity!

More info www.serendipitywines.it