Does it make sense to participate in wine competitions?
The controversy of the story you will read below does not subside:
In a wine competition held in Hong Kong, a wine priced at €2.50 won an international prize, but it was all made possible thanks to a prank orchestrated by a Belgian TV show called "On n'est pas des pigeons" (We are not pigeons) of the broadcaster RTBF.
The jury of the Gilbert & Gaillard International Wine Competition was tasked with evaluating the wine not only on its flavor but also on the appearance of the bottle, and this was the key to the deception. The authors of the Belgian show chose a cheap wine from a supermarket, worth €2.50, and decanted it into a fake bottle labeled "Le Château Colombier," which doesn't actually exist. They then submitted this wine to the competition via parcel post.
Incredibly, the wine returned to Belgium with the gold medal, proving that the jury had appreciated the economical wine as the best in the competition. The jury's detailed description included a bright garnet red color, a nose with notes of stone fruit, currants and light oak, a smooth, nervous and rich palate, with young and clean aromas that promised a beautiful complexity, with evolution on spices fines and a touch of soot.
A Belgian comedy program tricked the jury of an international wine competition into winning a cheap wine with a fake bottle, proving that appearances can fool even wine experts.
Since tastes are subjective, every enthusiast or professional in the wine world should taste and appreciate according to their own liking.
What do you think about it?