Wooing Tree Pinot Noir 2005 wins another gold, this time at the 2007 International Wine Challenge in London.

The 2007 International Wine Challenge (IWC), the world’s largest blind wine tasting, announced its medal results today. The awarding of fewer Gold medals this year underlines the rigorous judging process of a competition that has established itself as the pre-eminent arbiter of wine quality since it was created 24 years ago.

This year 9,358 wines were judged from 35 different countries, by 400 judges. The judges came from 19 different countries and included 33 Masters of Wine.

The top 3 medal winning nations remain the same as last year – France, Australia and Italy. France scooped the most medals with a total tally of 635. South Africa sees an increase in medals from 147 in 2006 to 195 in 2007.

France also takes home the most Golds (44), followed by Australia (39). Portugal comes in third with 36 Golds, a great achievement for a smaller wine-producing nation. Although the overall trend was for fewer gold medals (7% less than in 2006).

Wooing Tree Pinot Noir is therefore in select company and a truly great result. Co-owner of the family owned and run Central Otago vineyard, Steve Farquharson puts the success down to producing good grapes in the vineyard and the excellent winemaking of Carol Bunn at Vinpro in Cromwell. This adds to a great year for Wooing Tree, at the 2006 Air New Zealand Wine Awards, Wooing Tree Pinot Noir 2005 won a gold medal and the Open Red Wine Trophy for the show in addition to a gold at the New Zealand International Wine Show 2006, then earlier this year the Wooing Tree Rose 2006 won the Royal Easter Show Champion Rose Trophy.

The IWC Trophy winning wines will be announced at Vinexpo, held in Bordeaux on Monday 18th June. The top awards for Champion Wines, Winemaker of the Year, Specialist Awards and the coveted Merchant of the Year Awards will be revealed at the International Wine Challenge Dinner on the 12th September 2007 at the Grosvenor Hotel, London.