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JR's notes:

The International Wine Challenge is held every year in London, in which several thousand wines are whittled down to a few hundred to be awarded medals for excellence in their various classes. I always try to get along for a day or two's tasting in May, and last year they asked me the write up the results of the 'Spain and Spanish-style' section. the title referes to the fact that in 1999 Spain had romped away with a clutch of medals. Without the magnificent 1994 and 1995 vintages, the year 2000 was to be a more low-key affair. This was published by WINE magazine in November, 2000. The WINE magazine website is at www.wilmington.co.uk

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WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

This time last year the red-wine makers of Iberia were basking in the reflected glow of gold and silver, with the best showing ever at the Challenge. If this year's results for the peninsula (plus a small slice of Argentina) don't quite have the headline-grabbing qualities of the Challenge in 1999, they do show some interesting trends which have been bubbling under the surface for some considerable time. John Radford unravels the statistical entrails...

Yes, of course, Rioja and the Douro dominate. Given the level of investment in vineyards and technology - as well some fairly scary price-increases in both areas - it would be ridiculous if they didn't. In a wine world where investment increasingly comes from heavyweight international corporations whose interest is financial rather than vinous, we should, perhaps, count ourselves lucky that talented winemakers still seem to be in charge in most places, using the freely-available capital to do the right thing in the winery and the vineyard.

But first, the figures: four golds, 35 silvers, 90 bronzes and 174 'seals of approval' plus a further ten awards for Argentino Tempranillo and even one for France (Domaines Virginie must be enormously pleased to have won a bronze medal in the Spanish class - watch out Bordeaux!). All four golds went to Rioja - two for LAN, one for Ondarre and one for Riscal - and all for the 1996 vintage, the 1994s and 1995s (which dominated last year's gold medals) now being sadly missed. Rioja also garnered seven silvers, 22 bronzes and 39 seals of approval. Perhaps those price-rises were justified... Er, perhaps not.

The Douro provided four silvers, nine bronzes and 23 seals of approval with a fairly even range across the three vintages 1996-1999, and a solitary 1995 Quinta do Portal which they must have kept locked in the shed. However, the conclusion we might draw from the fact that The 'top' area in each of Spain and Portugal dominated the awards (more than a third of all the awards came from Rioja and the Douro) is that nothing succeeds like success. The most interesting information, however and as ever, isn't in the headline figures. Blockbusting wines win golds and trophies one year and then disappear the next, only to reappear again a year or two later, usually due to the vagaries of weather and vintage quality. But two or three things in this year's results seem to point towards trends.

One of them is our increasing love-affair with the Tempranillo grape, especially from Argentina, with ten awards including three bronze medals in that category. From Spain more than a dozen of the non-Rioja medal-winners are Tempranillo-only or Tempranillo-mainly, mostly youngish and as often as not made in the up-front, fruity style which showcases the grape's delicate raspberry/strawberry fruit.

The obverse of the rise of young, fresh Tempranillo is that traditionally-made wines - the Gran Reservas and other oaky styles, seem to make fewer and fewer appearances amongst the medals. This is, perhaps explainable in two ways: the first is that the market is very much oriented towards young, fresh, cold-serve red wines and the entries to the Challenge will reflect what's on the market and what people want to buy. The other is that older, oakier wines tend to perform best with food - as an example at a recent tasting in Rioja I unwittingly marked the same wine twice on the same day, with and without food. It scored 16 by itself in the morning session and 18 on the table at lunch.

If the Spanish golds were all Rioja, it's interesting to note that they're all Reservas from the 1996 vintage (classified as 'muy buena' or 4/5 compared with last year's winning run by the 1994s and 1995s which were classified as 'excelente' or 5/5). The trend in these parts is for less oak ageing and a little longer in bottle, and it certainly seems to have worked for Bodegas LAN whose LAN Reserva and Viña Lanciano both won gold. Ondarre Reserva (they also took a silver for Mayor de Ondarre) and the Marqués de Riscal Reserva were the other two.

Silver medals went to wines from Valencia (Schenk), Valdepeñas (Felix Solis), Toro (the Viña Bajoz Co-op), Utiel-Requena (Torre Oria) and Costers del Segre (Castell del Remei) as well as the 'big boys' of Rioja (Martínez-Bujanda, La Rioja Alta, Barón de Ley, Campillo, Artadi), Navarra (Guelbenzu - two silvers), Somontano (Pirineos - two silvers) and Ribera del Duero (Grandes Bodegas). This last is a bit of a puzzler: wines from Ribera del Duero fetch astronomical prices and are widely-touted as being amongst Spain's finest, and yet won only one silver, 10 bronzes and 10 seals. Similarly, Priorato is making wines which sell at intergalactic prices, and yet there wasn't a single wine from the region in the final frame. Perhaps they decided not to enter.

It's also very encouraging to see that the less high-profile areas are coming forward in ever-greater numbers. Last year Bodegas Castaño in Yecla won a gold. This year they have to be content with a couple of seals, but they're still there, sole ambassadors for their region.

Also represented from Spain are Cigales, Jumilla, La Mancha, and Vinos de Madrid with bronze medals, and Calatayud, Campo de Borja, Cariñena, Manchuela, Medina del Campo and Ribera del Guadiana with seals of approval, which indicates that work in progress all over the country is starting to produce results.

Portugal shows a similar burgeoning of talented winemaking throughout its regions, even though last year's trophy winner, David Baverstock's Herdade de Esporão from the Alentejo, is only represented in the bronze section (albeit three times). However, amongst the big names of the Portuguese wine world such as João Pires, Peter Bright, Luís Pato and Miguel Champalimaud there are some minnows jostling for position. Silver medallists include Hans Jørgensen's Cortes de Cima (Alentejo - no less than three), Manuel de Oliveira's Quinta dos Roques (Dão - two, and two bronzes as well) and the hardworking co-op at Quinta de Maias (Dão), and there are bronzes from Estremadura, Palmela and the Terras do Sado. Once again, we're seeing good results from work being done on small estates - and usually with indigenous vines, which is very encouraging.

And then there's Argentina, of course, with the state of Mendoza showing remarkably well with four bronzes (two for La Agrícola and one each for Finca Flichman and the Marqués de Griñón) and six seals of approval. How long before the Tempranillistas Argentinas start to make their gold mark on the International Wine Challenge?

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Those 1999 gold-medal results in full:

Herdade de Esporão Alentejo 1997 (trophy last year) - three bronzes for the 1996, 1998, 1999 this year.

Albet i Noya Penedès (two golds for Martí 1995 and Lignum 1997 last year) - bronze for Martí 1996 this year.

Berberana Rioja Reserva 1994 - sold out.

Castaño Viña Montana Monastrell/Merlot Yecla 1998 - seal of approval this year (1999 vintage).

Lagunilla Rioja Reserva 1994 - seal of approval this year (1996 vintage).

Mayor de Ondarre Rioja Reserva 1994 - silver this year (1995 vintage).

Torres Sangredetoro Penedès 1996 - seal of approval this year (1998 vintage).

Montecillo Rioja Gran Reserva 1991 - sold out.

Boas Quintas Touriga Nacional Dão 1997 - seal of approval this year for Quinta de Vila Freire (1998 vintage).

Vallado Douro 1997 - seal of approval this year (1998 vintage).

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