We are delighted to announce you that 11th anniversary Japan Wine Challenge will take place from Wednesday 9th to Friday 11th July 2008.

We are honoured to have continued Chairmanship of Steven Spurrier (Consultant Editor, Decanter Magazine) and new Co-Chairman Lynne Sherriff MW who is a Deputy Vice Chair of the Institute of Masters of Wine, and again looking forward to some outstanding wines and results. Our continued association with the Institute of Masters of Wine, the San Francisco International Wine Competition, and Mundus Vini which is Continental Europe’s biggest wine show and our team of expert judges (both international and local) ensures that all wines are given the optimum evaluation by a truly international and professional judging panel.

Chairman's Welcome
Steven Spurrier
I”It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to participate in the 11th Japan WINE Challenge in 2008. Having been Chairman since 2001, I have seen great improvements in the overall standard of wine entering Japan, and indeed the increase of confidence that the wine trade and consumers have. The Japan WINE Challenge is the biggest and most significant international wine competition in Asia. Winning an award here is recognized throughout the wine world as well as helping to ensure positive sales results in Japan.”

Menu
Introduction
Comments from our International Judges/The 2008 Judges Line Up
Comments from Entrants/Benefits of Japan Wine Challenge
2008 Schedule
Entry for 2008

 
Introduction

Our Vision for 2008

Retail Section
The 2008 11th JWC is going to focus more than ever before on expanding the retailer involvement. This in turn will assist in getting the education message across to trade and consumer. In 2007,
we asked award winning wineries to advise details of their top retailers in Japan - wherever this information was received we incorporated it in our JWC magazine. For 2008, we are asking all entrants to give us the same information in advance.
This will enable us to establish which retailers in Japan are most relevant to developing the premium credentials of international wines in the retail market. It will also allow us to give "JWC Retailer Awards" to those retailers which have the greatest number of JWC entries on their shelves in 2008 and future years. After the judging is completed, we plan to also give a further award of "Best Japan Retailer" to the retail outlet in Japan which (based on the information supplied by entrants) has the greatest number of award winning wines.
New Awards
JWC Retailer Awards - depending on the information received from entrants, these could be awarded to 3-5 retailers in Japan.
Best Japan Retailer - one award to the store which (based on the information given to us by entrants) has the most award winning wines.
Best Discovery Award - in order to encourage wineries whose wines are not yet present in the Japan market, we will introduce a "Best Discovery Award" - this will be given to the wine not currently represented in Japan which in the opinion of the judges has the best potential in the Japan market.
Best Value Award - we will have one award/category only, comprising wines with an actual retail price in Japan of less than \2,000.

 
Awards Ceremony & Gala Dinner/Charity Auction

- Friday 11th July 2008 at Grand Hyatt Tokyo-
We will this year have our Awards Ceremony on the very last day of the judging! Although this will be a logistical challenge, we believe it is possible. HIH Princess Takamado has graciously agreed to be present for this very special occasion, and to make the top awards. In addition, all our international and Japanese judges will attend and will sit at various tables in order to directly communicate on the Japan Wine Challenge with all those attending. For this purpose, we propose to use one bottle of the Trophy, Gold and Silver-award winning wines, so that these can be featured at the event. To this end, we have decided to ask participants in this year's JWC to submit one more sample bottle, making a total of 4 bottles per entry.

Entry Kits are distributed to thousands of companies worldwide inviting them to submit their wines. All information received on every wine to be tasted is inputted into the computer. Once this information is logged the process begins of sorting out the wines themselves.

The wines are "flighted": placing entries into groups of 12-18 wines. The style of each flight is partly dictated by the wine and its likely complexity. Bottles are then wrapped in special "co-extruded" WINE bags and tagged.

The judges arrive and are split into tasting teams. The teams usually consist of 5 judges - predominantly Japanese wine authorities with one or two of the visiting international judges.

The tasting notes are then recorded in both English and Japanese for the Japan WINE Challenge Magazine, which lists the full list of winning wines with their tasting notes.

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