Madame Bollinger Foundation Award for Best Japanese Judge Four years ago, the Madame Bollinger Foundation, the Japan Wine Challenge and the Institute of Masters of Wine have decided to promote the importance of wine education by introducing a special Award at the Japan Wine Challenge, the "Madame Bollinger Foundation Award for Best Japanese Judge" The Madame Bollinger Foundation, founded in 1987, is committed to promoting the highest standards of excellence in the wine industry. For the last ten years, the Foundation has been one of the Institute of Masters of Wine's major supporters offering financial support and the prestigious Madame Bollinger Foundation Medal to a new Master of Wine showing outstanding tasting skills in the MW exam each year. To be eligible to receive the Award for Best Japanese Judge, the candidate must attend two or more full days of judging at the Japan Wine Challenge. The final day of judging, each Table Leader puts forward the names of those candidates whose performance stood out over the four full days of tasting. The final candidates are then invited to attend a "mock" MW blind tasting exam. The winner of the Madame Bollinger Foundation Award for Best Japanese Judge at the 9th Japan Wine Challenge is Ms. Natsuko Honda. Ms. Honda is being sponsored by the Madame Bollinger Foundation Award to attend the Institute of Masters of Wine Summer Residence Course in Melbourne, Australia.
Natsuko Honda This is my first year judging at the Japan Wine Challenge, having launched my career in the wine industry. I very much enjoy selecting wines and bringing them to Japan for my customers. The experience at the Japan Wine Challenge has broadened my horizons of the many varied wine styles and regions which want to be in Japan. On the first day of judging I was quite nervous but after realising that my scoring was similar to the rest of the panel my confidence grew. I found the experience of judging with several of the international judges both interesting and beneficial to my tasting, and had an excellent week interacting with them. There were 8 wines on the table at the Mme Bollinger Award Foundation exam, and the questionnaires were in English and answer sheet was blank, which made me nervous. However, I am very honoured and proud of myself to be able to differentiate 7 different varietals/regions among 8 different wines. Just looking back, one week long tasting and the 2 day MW seminars were really beneficial to me and my having already completed various international wine certificates (CWE, WSET) helped a lot. I wish to start preparing myself for the MW seminar to be held next January, with a lot of support from Lynne Sherriff MW and others.
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Madame Bollinger Foundation Award Winner 
Runner-up:
Minoru Numata