On October 14, in the sumptuous setting of the Opéra Garnier, the Golden Vines Awards honored ten winners, including France’s iconic Domaine de la Romanée Conti, California’s Ridge Vineyards and Australia’s Penfolds. This “Oscar of fine wines” punctuated three exceptional days of gastronomy, prestige vintages and entertainment.
The Golden Vines Awards celebrate the world’s finest wineries while raising funds for a worthy cause.
The Golden Vines Awards ceremony, organized by Liquid Icons, a specialist in the analysis and creation of wine and spirits-related content, and sponsored by the House of Gucci, took place in the imperial setting of the Opéra Garnier in the heart of Paris.
This is a first for the event, which will be held in 2021, and which had previously been held in Florence, at the Palazzo Vecchio.
Celebrating the most successful wineries
The Golden Vines Awards are part of an exclusive program consisting of three days of festivities (conferences, gala evening, gourmet lunches, online auction) reserved for a happy few. To take part, you had to pay the not inconsiderable sum of £10,000 (11,482 euros). With the added bonus of being able to taste the most expensive wine on the planet: Liber Pater 2007, a single bottle of which costs in the region of 30,000 euros!
The two previous editions combined to raise £2.2 million for the Fondation Gérard Basset. This organization raises funds to finance educational programs around diversity and inclusivity, in the worlds of wine, spirits and entertainment.
It was in 2014, that Lewis Chester, 20 years of experience working for hedge funds decided to found Liquid Icons with his friend Gérard Basset OBE, the only Master Sommelier (MS) with a Master of Wine (MW). Four years ago, they created the Global Fine Wine Report, a survey of a thousand wine and spirits professionals in a hundred countries. To honor his late friend in 2019, the report is permanently changing its name to the Gérard Basset Fine Wine Report.
To capitalize on this proximity to wine and spirits professionals and reward their efforts, Lewis Chester came up with the idea of creating the worldly, hedonistic Golden Vines Awards. And the first one will take place in London in 2021.
A grand cru 2023
This year, almost 1000 wine professionals from 120 countries voted for the Golden Vines Awards. Among them: 27 Masters of Wine, 22 Maîtres Sommeliers, over 180 winemakers, wine presses, wine merchants and Michelin-starred sommeliers with an average of 15 years’ experience in the industry. The results were independently verified by Deloitte LLP, in accordance with the voting rules published on the Liquid Icons website.
Each winner was presented with a trophy designed by Shantell Martin, a British visual artist and Creative Director of Les Vignes d’Or, and manufactured by Amorim Cork, featuring a work of art commissioned from French artist Jonathan Bréchignac. The trophy was placed in a specially designed trunk produced by Gucci, sponsor of Les Vignes d’or®.
For this 2023 edition, three nominees were crowned masters of the evening, for the third year running! Starting with the emblematic representative of Burgundy’s Cote de Nuit vineyards, Domaine de la Romanée Conti, who won the 2023 Robb Report Golden Vines® award for the world’s best producer of fine wines.
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Read also > WINES AND SPIRITS: FRANCE ONCE AGAIN THE WORLD’S LEADING WINE PRODUCER
Featured Photo : Getty Images pour Global Vines Awards
