Muscats du Monde: An international opportunity to establish the extraordinary aromatic diversity of Muscats.

The results of the 18^th Edition of the Muscats du Monde International Wine Competition, have just been announced. Over the course of two days, international experts tasted 212 Muscats wines from all over the world. The 2018 awards list from Muscats du Monde is an opportunity to discover the incomparable palette of aromas that Muscat wines can offer.

Strict quality standards and optimal tasting conditions enabled international judges to award 70 medals that are recognised as a reliable criterion for selection.

The 18^th international confrontation of the world’s best Muscats wines, Muscats du Monde, organised by Forum Œnologie, was held 4 and 5 of July 2018 in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the city of Frontignan-la-Peyrade (France). The iconic birthplace of the Muscats of Frontignan hosted the international experts-judges in the historical setting of the Voltaire House.

Since 18 years, its international wine competition recognised the world’s best Muscats wines, awarding reliable and thus representative medals. Muscats du Monde is founded on a single conviction: distinctive marks of quality are the key to the differentiation and thus to the promotion of medal-winning wines in a highly competitive and often confusing marketplace. Medalwinning wineries can use their medals in marketing their wines.

Muscats du Monde 2018 brought together still and sparkling Muscats wines from 23 countries, making this competition into one of the world’s top events for Muscats wines. Since its creation, this competition has been a wonderful occasion to taste traditional Muscat wine (VDN: Vin Doux Naturel/Sweet natural Wine) and to follow the development of a wide variety of new wines, highlighting the complexity and aromatic richness of Muscat varieties.

Muscats du Monde has carved out a place of its own amongst wine competitions, thanks to its international flavour and its rigorous methods. During the two days of tasting under optimal conditions, the international expert judges awarded 70 medals (24 Gold and 46 Silver Medals) in accordance with international wine competition regulations and in strict compliance with Quality Assurance requirements.

Muscats du Monde has progressively distinguished itself from other international competitions thanks to quality standards that are much stricter than the norm and by remaining faithful to its founding principles: diversity, quality and high standards.

Medals distribution Gold Medals 24 Silver Medals 46

Awarded Medals count by countries

Top 10* Best Muscats du Monde® 2018
Country	Product	Winery
Australia	Morris Old Premium Rare Liqueur Muscat	Morris Wines
Hungary	Holdvölgy Exaltation Tokaji Sargamuskotaly 2014	Moonvalley Estate
Australia	Morris Cellar Reserve Grand Liqueur Muscat	Morris Wines
France	Muscat de Rivesaltes – Château les Pins 1993	Vignobles Dom Brial
France	Muscat de Beaumes de Venise – Domaine de Coyeux - Vintage 2009	Scea Domaine de Coyeux
Portugal	Setubal Do – Quinta do Piloto – Moscatel Roxo – Superior 2011	Quinta do Piloto – Vinhos Lda
South Africa	Orange River Cellars Red Muscadel 2017	Orange River Wines
Italy	Trentino Superiore Doc Vivallis – Castel Beseno 2017	Vivallis SCA
Portugal	Setubal Do Venancio Costa Lima Moscatel Roxo 2014	Venancio da Costa Lima Lda
Greece	Vin de Liqueur – Samos – Anthemis 2012	United Winemaking Agricultural Coop. of Samos
Spain	Valencia Do – Vino de Licor - Mistela Moscatel Turis	La Baronia de Turis
Chile	Erasmo Late Harvest – Torontel 2008	Vina la Reserva de Caliboro
Portugal	Casa Ermelinda Freitas – Moscatel Roxo de Setubal Superior 2010	Casa Ermelinda Freitas - Vinhos Lda
Cyprus	Ayia Mavri Mosxatos 2014	Ayia Mavri Winery LTD
France	Pays d'Oc IGP Grain de Muscat Moelleux 2017	SPH Gérard Bertrand
France	Alsace – Muscat Weck « Laisse toi aller ! » 2017	SARL Weck Clément et Fils
France	Muscat de Saint Jean de Minervois – Domaine les Roumanis Petit Grain 2017	Les Grands Chais de France
* Some wines are rigorously equal thus the TOP 10 2018 includes 17 wines.

Geographical diversity

With 25 countries, Muscats du Monde is the strongest Muscats wine concentration ever realized. It is thus the most significant and legitimate qualitative confrontation for the distinction of best Muscats of the world. All of the Muscat-producing regions in France were well represented: Alsace, Corsica, Languedoc-Roussillon and the Rhône Valley.

Other well-represented countries included Spain, Italy, Portugal and even such faraway countries as South Africa, Australia, Brazil and Chile. The participation of countries such as Bulgaria, Greece and Roumania was also notable.

An international Award list of very high-level of quality

A very high-level of international quality for the 2018 award list: 23 countries in competition and nine on the Top 10 ranking of the best Muscats 2018.

The Top 10 ranking honor nine countries: South Africa, Australia, Cyprus, Spain, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Portugal. The sweet wines of late harvest and by “mutage” obtain beautiful Gold Medals. Australia and Hungary occupy the two first places. Two Australian wines, five French wines and three Portuguese wines made the Top Ten.

The good place of France is noted with 7 Gold Medals and 13 Silver Medals. Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence took home a number of prestigious medals. In Europe, Spain, Italy and Portugal distinguished themselves with several medals. Portugal obtains six very beautiful Gold Medals and four Silver Medals. Outside Europe, South Africa, Australia, Brazil and Chile all stood out.

Diversity of Sensorial Expression

Each of the wines that distinguished themselves at Muscats du Monde did so because of their own intrinsic quality, not in comparison with the other wines. This event is therefore a unique opportunity to bring together and discover a wide variety of Muscats wines in all their forms: dry, sweet, still, sparkling, with and with pink to dark red shades. According to the expert judges, this extraordinarily rich group of wines demonstrated a level of sensory complexity rarely encountered with other wines.

Several marks of quality gold and silver were awarded to botrytised, late harvest and special selection. A wide variety of dry, off-dry, sweet, still, sparkling, young, age-worthy wines received favourable notice. Several Gold Medals were awarded to dry wines, which were characterised by an elegant acid balance and by floral, muscat aromas. The sparkling wines were noted for their elegance and lightness (low alcohol). For the sweet wines (vins doux naturels and vins de liqueur), the expert judges had a wide choice of high-quality wines from which to pick the best.

Incontestably the 2018 award list honour naturally sweet and VDN (Sweet Natural Wine) Muscats, Muscats “Hors d'âge” aged in oak barrel and liqueur wines.

The participation of sparkling wines is in increase.

Muscats du Monde^® is organised by the Forum Œnologie Association with participation from the Revue des Œnologues and in partnership with:

• The city of Frontignan-la-Peyrade
• The Services Actions Qualité company for competition-related computing services.
• The Paul Bocuse Institut which acts as the sensory assessment centre for the expert judges.

An organisation with highly reputed partners:
	City of Frontignan la Peyrade
	La Revue des Œnologues - International Technical Magazine about Wine and Vine - Technical and Communication Partner.
	SAQ Logistic - Official Partner for International Deliveries.
	SAQ - Services Actions Qualité - Expert Translation Services for the Wine and Grape Industries - Technical Partner.