More than 700 wines from the region tasted during the third edition of Vinalies at the Béziers exhibition center

Ils étaient près de 240 dégustateurs au parc des expositions. Midi Libre – Rodrigue Delpas

Mercredi 24 avril, au parc des expositions de Béziers, se tenait la 3e édition du concours Vinalies d’Occitanie. Près de 240 personnes ont dégusté les 700 échantillons de vin de la région.

A whole organization is being put in place, Wednesday April 24 in the morning, to distribute the nearly 240 tasters among the fifty tables arranged in hall 3 of the Béziers exhibition center. Oenologists, sommeliers, oenology students or simple wine lovers, they are united for the third edition of the Vinalies Occitanie competition.

Highlighting the best wines of Occitanie

Formerly called the Languedoc great wine competition, Vinalies is organized by the Union of Oenologists of France. The objective is to highlight the best wines of Languedoc-Roussillon, then of Occitanie from now on. "We are calling on all winegrowers in the region to send us their samples, explains Anne-Marie Estampe, oenologist  of the organizing committee. After a first selection, they are tasted here in order to elect the best and award medals."

Governed by the DGCCRF (the repression of fraud), the regulation stipulates that the maximum medals awarded is 30% of the wines screened. Once this first tasting has been carried out, the gold medal-winning wines are tasted a second time by the "super jury, around ten people, the cream of the experts". This year, the tasting will take place at the Florensac cellar on Tuesday April 30th and will allow you to choose your favorite Vinalies Occitanie wines. They will be highlighted in the columns of Midi Libre.

During this 3rd edition, students are in the spotlight. Some are part of the jury and participate in the tasting, others from the organization. "Luckily the Purple Campus students are there, smiles Anne-Marie Estampes. They really helped us install everything, they're great."

The grading criteria

As with any tasting, the criteria are the same: "First of all , we judge the visual aspect, explains Anne-Marie Estampe. Then, we move on to the "nose", the aromas, the complexity, to see if that gives something harmonious. And finally, the "mouth", so we look at the acidity, the tannins, and with all that, we judge the overall harmony of the wine. Concretely, if we want to take it again or not." With all these parameters, we obtain a score out of 20, à From 13.5, the wine obtains a silver medal and beyond. 15.5 is the gold medal.

I subscribe to read more