Evaluation

PREPARATION PROCEDURE

1. After the wines are purchased and collected, they will be cross-referenced with the wines/labels that the producers registered for participation on the online platform to ensure they agree. Then, later, the Organising Committee will arrange the flights (wine tasting order) based on the categories defined (e.g. Assyrtiko, Indigenous white varieties, etc.).
2. Each Flight will have a code name, and each wine in the flight will also have its own unique code. Until the wines are served in the tasting room, where the evaluation process will take place, they are stored in ideal temperature and humidity conditions.
3. Upon reception of the wines from the market and from selected points, which preserve and store wines in conditions, these will be checked by the organising committee to ensure that the information on the bottle agrees with that given upon registration on the online platform. In this way, a first verification of the data is carried out.
4. All samples are photographed, and a second verification is carried out on the spot by the Organising Committee to ensure that the wines received match those entered by the producers.
5. Each wine (each label) registered by the producer to participate in the competition section will receive a unique code that will accompany it throughout the process and constitutes its “identity”.
6. The Organising Committee will group the wines into Flights (tasting order of wines within each flight), registering their unique codes and a third verification of the wine data is carried out to confirm that the validity of the data is 100% accurate and that each code corresponds to a particular wine.
7. Each flight created will be given a code name, and the wines participating in each flight will be registered with their individual code names (their “identity” as mentioned above, which they received upon registration from producers on the platform). Bottles are labelled with the flight code and their individual code names, and the whole process is verified once again to exclude any mistakes.
8. The wines are transferred to the tasting room and are stored in a separate chilled room in the most appropriate conditions.
9. The Organising Committee carries out a final verification of wines and flights that are to participate in the competition room.
10. The tasting room will be divided into two parts that will not allow visual contact of one department with the other. The wines are served blind to the judges.

The organising committee members are the following, and they are in no way involved in the tasting process.

1. Yiannis Karakasis MW
2. Grigoris Michailos Dip WSET
3. Dimitris Manolakos
4. Sophia Drakou
5. Kostas Michalopoulos

EVALUATION PROCESS

Part of what makes the competition section of 50 GGW different is that there are small flexible, and homogeneous evaluation panels that are made up of specialists in wine tasting, with a proven ability to judge the quality of wines. The judges participating are world-class tasters with a particular interest and much experience tasting Greek wines. Information about judges and their biography can be found in the judges’ section.

11. All wines are served according to the categories and Wine-Flights (order in which the wines are tasted) that the organising committee arranged. Wines are categorised into flights in a different room from the one used for the tasting and are cross-referenced many times to ensure absolute matching of the wines for each flight and each judge. The bottles are tagged with the wine number within each flight.
12. The tasting room will be divided into two parts, and there is no visual contact of one part with the other. The wines are served blind to the judges from bottles that are totally covered to secure absolute objectivity in the tasting and evaluation of the wines by the judges.
13. The judges taste all wines blind. They are informed only of the category of each wine, the alcohol level, and the vintage. Information on the designation of origin is not provided (for example, an Assyrtiko is judged only within its category, and judges have no information on whether it comes from Crete, Santorini or another region of Greece).
14. If a particular variety is vinified by very few producers, it will be referred to the judges as a rare indigenous variety.
15. Sweet wines (with residual sugars > 45gr/lt will only compete within their category and do not participate in the overall Great 50.
16. Initially the judges the wines of the flight placed in front of them, scoring each wine and taking down notes on their computer. If there is significant discrepancy between the votes of the judges for some wines (for some labels), a discussion and exchange of opinions follows, so that the best possible conclusion can be reached as to the rating of the wine.
17. The judges’ ratings and the final score will be given on a scale of 100 and will express the average of the scores. The rating for each wine will be presented with the accuracy of a first decimal.
18. The judges’ scores are recorded electronically on the system, which has been developed explicitly for 50 GGW, and are confirmed and finalised. This software ensures that the procedure is unimpeachable. After final confirmation, no judge rating can change, and judges cannot re-access the particular flight.
19. The competition is divided into two phases. An initial phase in which all the wines are tasted and a second phase in which the 70 wines with the highest scores are re-tasted to determine the finalist 50 wines to be included in the 50 Great Greek Wines – The List.
20. The award-winning wines will be announced at an event and then through social media, emails, on the 50 GGW site, with a press release and through the media sponsors. Only the winners of 50 Great Greek Wines are announced together with the total number of participating wines and wineries.

Wine Categories

21. The wines are divided into 16 categories selected by the 50 GGW organising committee. The 50 wines with the highest rating, regardless of the category in which they competed, will be included in the 50 GGW list. They are announced alphabetically with no numeric ranking.
22. Apart from the 50 wines with the highest scores, the winners of each separate category are also announced. The winner of each category is presented with an award. If a particular category has 15 or more participant wines, the organising committee can announce 3-5 winner wines depending on the number of participant wines in each category. Unlike the 50 GGW | The List, here, the winners of the separate categories are presented according to their final rating (1-3 or 1-5).

The participating categories:

Collective

1. Greek Wines
2. Cypriot Wines
3. Value for Money (wines under 12 euros shelf price)
4. Sweet Wines (wines with minimum RS 45gr/lt from Greece and Cyprus)

Specific

5. Assyrtiko (100% Assyrtiko or PDO Santorini)
6. Indigenous Whites (wines produced 100% from an indigenous variety, other than Assyrtiko)
7. Other Whites (remaining white wines)
8. Agiorgitiko & Xinomavro (red wines from 100% Xinomavro or PDO Rapsani and PDO Goumenissa, red wines from 100% Agiorgitiko)
9. Indigenous Reds (wines produced 100% from an indigenous variety other than Xinomavro and Agiorgitiko)
10. Other Reds (remaining red wines)
11. Rosés
12. Sparkling Wines
13. Traditional Wines (Orange wines, Retsina & Verdea, Nyhteri)
14. Low Intervention Wines (wines made from organically certified grapes, indigenous yeast, no additives, maximum total SO₂ 40mg/lt). For these wines a wine lab technical analysis will be requested, as also the organic certification for the grapes and a no additives declaration form by the producers.
15. Variety Focus (wines made from 100% Savatiano)
16. Old Vines (request of a declaration form that the mean age of vines is >40 years. Santorini is excluded so that other regions of Greece are given a chance to shine).

If a particular wine covers two or more categories and is partaking in all, it will be tasted only once, within a single category chosen by the organising committee. Sweet wines will be judged only within their category and are not part of the 50GGW list.

In case of a tie, the following criteria will be considered:

– The average score, removing the highest and lowest scores

– The highest wine rating

– The lowest wine rating

– The score given by the chairman of the tasting panel

Faulty bottles

23. If according to the judges, a faulty bottle of wine is detected, e.g. a bottle with TCA or oxidation, they have the right to ask the organising committee to replace the bottle with another so that the wine can be re-tasted. For organisational purposes and smooth flow of the evaluation process, no more than two bottles of each wine can be opened.

RELIABILITY

We aim to secure the utmost reliability and an irreproachable evaluation process, and for this reason, all wines have an equal starting point and are evaluated by reputable expert judges.

More specifically: 

24. The wines are presented to the judges with the coding on the tasting glass in correspondence to the coding for each wine on the screen of their computer. All wines are tasted blind by judges.
25. The only elements known to judges during the wine tasting is the category in which the wines belong, the alcohol level and the vintage. No other information is given to the judges to exclude any possibility of a judge correlating with a particular wine or winery.
26. To ensure the reliability of 50 GGW, members of the organisational committee cannot be in a commercial relationship with any winery.
27. To ensure the unimpeachment of the results, special software has been developed.
28. Upon completion of the process, the judges receive a copy of the wine codes and the scores they awarded to each to be signed.
29. The organising committee acts independently of the judging panel, meaning the judges have no information about which wines or wineries are participating in the competition. The judges’ decisions are final. No changes can be made so that the evaluation process is beyond criticism.

Accepting the Terms & Conditions of 50 GGW

Participants who participate in any part of the project explicitly and unreservedly accept all the above official Rules, Terms and Conditions. They also bear the sole responsibility to read the official rules and to keep them in mind throughout the project. Participants must always act according to the official rules for them to be able to participate and reserve their right to claim a prize.

Upon participation, participants of the 50GGW accept that the process results will be used exclusively within the framework of the 50 GGW project.

If any of the above is breached by participants, the Organising Company can exercise its legitimate rights and claims.