BLACK IS DEAD: International Wine Challenge

The IWC Discovery Tasting provides buyers with the opportunity to taste, at their leisure, wines that have entered the IWC this year, but do not yet have importers in the UK.

Wines from 29 different countries, covering many styles, varieties and price ranges will be available to taste.

Wines are grouped by country then by grape, enabling tasters to browse through any section in which they’re looking to fill gaps on their list or portfolio. IWC staff will be on hand to open bottles and provide contact details for the wines’ producers.

In the IWC 2009 a massive 68.8% of those wines entered into the Discovery tasting won some form of medal. 35 won a Gold Medal and 8 won Trophies! The IWC Discovery tasting is made up only of wine NOT currently available on the UK market, so this is your opportunity to sign up a star before anyone else does.

For 2010 we have split our wines into three distinct areas to make easier for buyers to find the wines that they need as follows:

* On Trade - These are wines specifically looking for interest from on-trade buyers, targeted at bars, hotels and sommeliers.

* Off Trade High Street - These producers have said that their wines are available to high street chains, supermarkets and national groups.

* Off Trade Independents - These producers are only interested in independent merchants.

* Sake - There are over 400 Sake to taste. Sake is becoming increasingly popular. Make sure you have some on your lists! This is the largest opportunity outside Japan to see such a large range of Sake.