The World’s First Annual Volcanic Wine Awards: Chairman’s Awards and Full Results
By John Szabo, MS
This past May, Volcanic Wines International (VWI) and Wine & Spirits Magazine collaborated on the world’s first Volcanic Wine Awards, set to be an annual competition to recognize the top wines from volcanic wine regions around the world.
The results were announced on the Wine & Spirits Magazine website, a leading US authority especially amongst the trade, and shortly after at the 4th edition of the VWI Conference in New York City on June 18, co-founded by me and the New York-based PR firm Colangelo & Partners.
Jump to the Chairman’s Award winners below
Which wines qualify? The guiding principle for inclusion in both the conference and the awards is wines made from grapes grown in soil, ‘derived wholly or in majority from parent volcanic material’. This was also the baseline I set for wines and regions to be included in my book, Volcanic Wines, Salt Grit and Power, the inspiration for both the conference and the awards.
Aside from the obvious vineyards on the slopes of a volcano, whose soils are derived from weathered volcanic bedrocks (the whole spectrum of lavas), the definition also covers soils incorporating a high percentage of deposited volcanic ash, as in parts of Campania, Italy, as well as colluvial and alluvial volcanic material that slipped down a slope from further above or was deposited by a river, as is found in parts of Chile and Oregon, for example. The volcanic wine category is much broader than one would initially think, encompassing dozens of regions and grape varieties.
A total of 186 wines were submitted and tasted blind by a panel of experts, with judges provided the vintage, variety(-ies), and region for each wine. Wines were assessed independently based on regional expression and objective quality factors, and awarded Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals using a 100-point scale, as well as honorable mentions or no award.
Each panel was headed by a Competition Chair—Joshua Greene Editor, W&S Magazine, Corey Warren Tastings Editor at W&S, and me —who met at the end of both days of judging with two goals. First, to taste wines (still blind) for which the panels could not agree on a medal. Second, to taste all the Gold medal wines, to decide if any should be elevated to Chairman’s Award.
Tasting blind allowed panelists to focus on what made each wine unique and regionally distinct, and above all to assess its degree of volcanic character. It was especially fascinating to observe the panelists, who were not necessarily experts in volcanic wines specifically but all highly experienced tasters, converge on common ground of what constituted the most ‘volcanic’ expressions in each flight.
Inevitably, tasters gravitated towards wines of notable salinity and sapidity, often described as minerality, where fruit flavours were often secondary components. Many leading regional volcanic producers entered the competition, and the quality of the entries is reflected in the high percentage of awarded wines. The competition chairs provided the notes on the wines, taking the panelist’s comments into account.
See links below for all results, open to all, as well as reviews of the seven Chairman’s Award winners.
Medals awarded:
- 7 Chairman’s Awards (96+ points, Showing the Most Compelling Volcanic Expressions and Outstanding Quality)
- 27 Gold Medals (92 to 95 points, A Must Have on Your List)
- 45 Silver Medals (90 to 91 points, A Very Good Example of its Type)
- 37 Bronze Medals (88 to 89 points, A Good Example of its Type)
- 24 Honorable Mentions (86 to 87 points, A Correct Representation of its Type)
The panelists:
- Gurvinder Bhatia, Quench Magazine
- Julie Bramowitz, The Waverly Inn
- Gabriela Davogustto, Clay
- Juan Pablo Escobar, Babbo
- Jhonel Faelnar, Atomix
- Christy Frank, Copake Wine Works
- Karen Goodlad, City Tech
- Mary Gorman MW
- Pascaline Lepeltier, MS, Chambers
- Nacho Monclús, T. Edward Wines
- Amy Racine, JF Restaurants
- Harrison Spelman, The Waverly Inn
- Patricio Tapia, Descorchados
- Tara Q. Thomas, JancisRobinson.com
Results & Observations
Italy
The most sizable contingent of wines in the competition arrived from Mount Etna. Overall, these wines shined consistently for their volcanic character. The best of the whites, based largely on carricante, featured the classic fruit-backwards, mineral-forward volcanic nature of Etna’s terroir. The reds, based on nerello mascalese, offered smoldering red fruit and savory herbal quality—many of them gritty and with deceptive power for their relatively light frames. While soils on Etna vary considerably from lighter volcanic sands and ash to younger, more stony basalts, few would argue the overall uniformly volcanic makeup of this, the most active volcano in Europe.
The rest of Italy, on the other hand, with wines from regions such as Soave, Campania and Basilicata, were judged more heterogeneously. The highs and lows may be due, in part, to the mixed nature of the soils in these areas where volcanics often mingle with many other substrates.
See all results from Italy.
Rest of Europe & the Mediterranean
Of all the regions represented in the tasting, the Azores delivered some of most easily recognizable volcanic whites. The best of them displayed an unmistakable salinity, grit and stoniness. These remarkable wines grow in the uniform and utterly unforgiving basaltic soils (as in, rock) that make up the archipelago, especially Pico Island. They are the work of a small, tight-knit industry with just a handful of key players.
The Greek isle of Santorini, long lauded for its inimitable volcanic expressions, searing, saline, and decidedly un-fruity, did not disappoint. Despite the limited number of entries, the island still managed to bring home a Chairman’s award and two golds.
Given my own roots in Hungary, I would like to have seen more Hungarian wines in the competition, as the small handful of dry and sweet whites from Tokaj performed admirably, with a gold and a chairman’s award to show for it.
See all results from Europe and The Mediterranean.
The Pacific Coast
Despite Chile’s active and widespread volcanism, its volcanic terroirs remain largely unexploited. But exceptions are growing in the rocky, upper elevations of the Andes, and especially in the cooler Lake District in the south, where permeable volcanic ash soils— andosols—are locally known as trumão. These young, heavily layered, soft, airy ribbons of volcanic ash are home to rabbit warrens, país vines, and some award-winning chardonnay from Malleco.
The depth of the purest rocky volcanic terroirs in California’s Napa Valley are measured in inches, not feet, and are found along the upper ridges of the Mayacamas and especially the Vaca Range on the east side, where cabernet is invariably broad-shouldered, dark and sumptuous, and zinfandel more seriously structured. Interspersed strips of white volcanic tuff appear on Diamond Mountain and in the Vaca foothills (White Rock Vineyards), a fascinating medium for vines producing long-lived cabernet sauvignon.
To the north, in Lake County, obsidian provides a distinctive, and extreme, cabernet terroir. And to the west, “Sonoma Volcanics” is the official name for the mix of decomposed basalt, andesite and rhyolite lavas and compressed ash that is sprinkled throughout Sonoma County. On Sonoma Mountain, cabernet grown in dark red, acidic, basalt-derived soils with a north-eastern exposure at Laurel Glen earned a Chairman’s Award for their elegant 2014.
Oregon’s Willamette Valley offered a host of volcanic pinot noirs, grown on heavily weathered basaltic soils, called Jory (deep) and Nekia (much more shallow). Noted for their light reddish color, savory red-fruit character and silken textures, these wines contrast with the highly structured pinots from McMinnville’s shallow, 45-million-year-old accreted marine basalts. The Willamette’s volcanic-soil-derived pinot noirs are quite different from wines that grow in the valley’s sedimentary soils, which often produce pinots with a dark bluish-red color, and equally dark fruit.
Seel all results from the Pacific Coast
Chairman’s Awards
Zind-Humbrecht 2021 Grand Cru Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain Gewurztraminer, Alsace, France
Put aside your preconceptions of gewurztraminer and consider how the variety provides a tool to bring out the terroir in this wine. Joshua Greene found it delicious and fascinating, with a beautiful sculptural quality to the texture. John Szabo MS asserted that “you could not get any more volcanic or gewurzrtraminer,” that the wine unified their savour in the maximum expression of volcanic soil and variety. —John Szabo
Gai’a Estate 2022 Santorini Wild Ferment Assyrtiko, Santorini, Greece
“Sun and chalk and citrus” combined in this Santorini for Tara Q. Thomas, who found the richness of texture and depth of flavor mouthwatering. John Szabo MS felt like he “had to excavate volcanic ash to get a drop of fruit out of the wine,” though, a day later, tasted for the Chairman’s award, he was impressed by the way the wine blended the prettiness of assyrtiko with Santorini qualities. For Mary Gorman MW, there was “a shot of energy on the palate that just hits, its exotic citrus tightly wound around spicy, salty ash.” And Joshua Greene described how “the volcanic edginess makes me want to drink the wine—it draws me in. It’s delicious.” —Corey Warren
Royal Tokaji 2017 Tokaji 6 Puttonyos Nyulászó, Tokaj, Hungary
2017 was a lovely year for botrytis in the Tokaj region, and the purity and cleanliness comes through is this exemplary wine, so perfumed and concentrated—peach-and-apricot-driven, saffron-and-exotic-spice-inflected. There’s rich sweetness up front, then saliva-inducing citric acids sweep the finish clean, almost dry. Amazing how the wine can carry more than 200 grams of sugar so weightlessly. —John Szabo
Passopisciaro 2021 Terre Siciliane Contrada C, Mt. Etna, Sicily, Italy
Ripe and substantial, this wine’s complex aromas integrate a polished sheen of sweet baking spice. There’s depth and length in this classic cru, presented with a modern twist, striking in its intensity, in the concentration of fruit. Beautifully made. Harrison Spelman called out the volcanic structure, “with a plus of pretty fruit—floral, pomegranate and cranberry flavors and a mouthwatering, long finish. I would list it at the Waverly Inn.” Nacho Monclús concurred: “This is the style of Etna I am most looking for, very gastronomic, with acidity and the volcanic background.” —John Szabo
Tasca d’Almerita 2017 Etna Rosso VV Tenuta Tascante Contrada Sciaranuova, Sicily, Italy
Pale red garnet, with evolving aromatics, this is still very much alive—properly herbal, it’s a wine that seems to have been worth the wait. The palate is broad and substantial with plenty of depth and a tonic, savory, oxidative side. Great length. Harrison Spelman was impressed by the freshness of its berry fruit and the penetrating tannins. Josh Greene found the integration of fruit and tannin held a clear volcanic expression, the wine drinking beautifully right now. Nacho Monclús pegged it as a “world-class Etna wine, aged, but so elegant, with forest floor flavors and more. In perfect balance.” —John Szabo
Azores Wine Co. 2020 Azores Vinha dos Utras Arinto dos Açores, Azores, Portugal
A medium-deep gold color introduces this wine, parallel to the scent, touched by the stylish reduction of a great white Burgundy (if Burgundy were volcanic!). Pear, lemon and green apple flavors stream out of the glass, all in the cool climate spectrum. A wine of impeccable balance, there in its length and depth. “Astonishing in the grace of its power and length of flavor,” said Josh Greene—”I go to the Azores.” And Mary Gorman concurred, finding it “chiseled and energetic.” The panelists all agreed on superlatives, from “gorgeous” to “fabulous” and “top-notch stuff” (they did not know the price or the wine’s rarity). António Maçanita makes this wine from a parcel planted close to the sea, vines given to the Azores Wine Company by the descendants of Joss Hurtere, the Flemish Captain of Pico and Fayal who arrived at the islands in 1465. —John Szabo
Laurel Glen 2014 Sonoma Mountain Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County, California
Patrick Campbell planted this 16-acre estate with the help of Phil Coturri in 1977, the vines rising up to 1,100 feet in the Sonoma volcanics of Sonoma Mountain. The site was famed for its cabernet long before a group led by Bettina Sichel bought the property in 2011. Sichel brought Coturri on to manage the vines, and Randall Watkins to make the wine. Their 2014 is still tight, fresher than any of the younger cabernets we tasted from Sonoma and Lake counties. Patricio Tapia noted how “the earthy tannins lend some originality to the wine; I love the way it evolves in the mouth.” It took time for this wine to come forward in the glass, eventually catching the attention of all the judges. “It smells like a wine from a place,” noted John Szabo MS, “not made, but born. The fruit has an evergreen, coastal forest scent, the balance striking a happy ground where mountain herbs and beautiful bitterness coincide.” —Josh Greene
About Wine & Spirits Magazine
Now a digital-forward media company, Wine & Spirits published in print for 40 years before shifting strategy to focus on its digital reporting and events. The editorial team at Wine & Spirits has done extensive research and reporting on soil and its influence on the character of wine. This research helped inform the magazine’s Fall 2012 edition—“Uncommon Ground: Can you taste a place?” The issue was dedicated to the expression of terroir in wine, providing research that helped the editorial team focus a range of articles over the years that followed.
About Volcanic Wines International (VWI)
Volcanic Wines International’s mission is to lead in defining and establishing a Volcanic Wine Movement by educating the wine trade and the public about volcanic wines and their true sense of place. Guided by the definition John Szabo set out his category-defining book, Volcanic Wines, VWI cultivates an understanding of the distinctive geological conditions and natural forces that shape volcanic vineyards and highlights the individuality of the wines that arise from each. Since the first Volcanic Wines International Conference in 2018, there has been growing attention to volcanic wines, their singular character and compelling backstories.
That’s all for this report. See you around the next bottle.
