Modern day wine world is so big. Grapes are grown across the globe including in places, most people could not imagine. One such example is the planning of vineyards in Bhutan in the Himmalaya Mountains. Only a decade ago, who would have thought…
At the same time, more and more different grape varieties draw attention due to the quality of the wine that they can deliver and how well they adapt to the ongoing climate changes.
A substantial amount of those varieties, which may be indigenous varieties, crossings or hybrids, are green cultivars from which both still white wine, sparkling wine, fortified wine and orange wines is produced.
Most certainly, the world needs a competition to celebrate the “Wide, white world” and this is exactly what Le Mondial des Vins Blancs is about and I had the great privilege and honour of judging at the 27th edition, which took place on April 5th and 6th at the Congress Centre in Strasbourg.
This is the only global competition, dedicated entirely to the diversity of the world’s white wines, and wines from every continent challenge each other year after year. Ever since its earliest days as Riesling du Monde in Strasbourg back in 1998, the competition has been recognizing the great white wines from around the world.
Le Mondial des Vins Blancs is a very well-organized competition and you really feel welcomed and at home in Strasbourg right from your arrival.
Strasbourg is a lovely city to explore with its colourful history, which you sense where ever you go. From medieval architecture such as the immensely beautiful cathedral and Petite France through the baroque to modern day buildings such as the Gare Central and the European Parliament.
Gold medal awarded to Danish wine
2025 marked the first 25 years as a wine producing country under EU legislation and it also marked the debut of Danish wine at Le Mondial des Vins Blancs – and a highly successful debut with a gold medal award to PdC by Agger from Agger Vin in Haarby on the island of Fyn!
Danish wine has indeed come a long way since the turn of the Millennium and some research papers even see Northern Europe including Denmark as the center of winemaking in just about 75 years from now, according to Drinks Business.
And, in my opinion, just a few years from now, it should more and more standard for Danish wines to be winning medals at international competitions.
One very importing category to pay attention to on the Danish wine scene is sparkling wines, which should come of less of a surprise giving the quite marginal climate for grape growing. Denmark holds the northern most PDO in Europe, ‘Dons’, for sparkling wines and sparkling wines only.
An ever developing competition – dealcoholized and partially dealcoholized wine included
Le Mondial des Vins Blancs continues to develop and today it covers white wines from lots of different categories including multiple ones for specific grape varieties as well as ones for blends and wines made from any white wine grape variety of the world. Since 2022, orange wines have been included and sparkling wines made their debut in 2024.
As a logic response to the growing importance of no- and low-alcoholic beverages as a category across the world, dealcoholized and partially dealcoholized wines made their debut in the competition in the 2025 edition. Dealcoholized wines contain no more than 0,5% alcohol with partially dealcoholized wines sitting between 0,5 and 8,5%.
To further highlight this new category, a masterclass was conducted by Enologist Bruno Marret including a tasting of 5 selected samples. Besides the tasting, the masterclass covered the history of dealcoholized wines, techniques for dealcoholizing as well as current market trends. The interest in this quite topic category was obvious as illustrated by the number of questions from the audience.
Being awarded a medal at Le Mondial des Vins Blancs is not easy!
Being awarded a medal at Le Mondial des Vins Blancs is difficult, as no more than 30% Gold and Silver medals are to be awarded in each category, which is entirely in line with OIV rules, and for the 2025 competition, 578 wines from 19 countries across the world were submitted to the competition and a total of 173 Grand Gold, Gold and Silver medals were awarded to producers from as many as 13 out of the 19 countries.
Le Grand Prix du Jury was awarded to Slovak producer Ostrozovic Spol sro for their 2003 Tokajsky vyber 6 putnovy, which received a highly impressive score of 95,2 point!
Not too many people are aware, that a smaller area of the historic Tokaj region is in fact located in Slovakia, but it is, right across the border. And the wines from there can be spectacular!
Two Vinofed awards were handed out this year. Champagne Taittinger won Le Prix Vinofed Vin Effervescent for their 2013 Comtes de Champagne and Le Prix Vinofed Vin Tranquille was awarded to Czech producer B/V Vinarstvi as for their 2023 Ryzlink Rynsky.
Right now, countries like Denmark, Sweden and Poland should focus on white wines – if not sparkling – and I really do encourage quality focused producers to enter competitions internationally, and if you produce great white wines, why not have them judged at a competition dedicated to just that!
It is a wonderful chance for these countries as well as England and Canada to name a few to have your wines evaluated by expert jurors from all over the world and at the same time, it is a great opportunity for countries in a marginal climate to clinch time in the spotlight and thus to increase the world’s knowledge of these lesser known wine producing countries and their wines.
LehmannLarsen.com 