All involved in DWWA 2022 were extremely keen to get back to some semblance of normality, with the first rounds of judging getting underway in late April at CentrEd at Excel in London’s Docklands, and judging for Best in Show winners held for the first time at Decanter’s bespoke new tasting suite in Paddington, west London. While Covid did rear its unwelcome head, ruling out a number of disappointed would-be participants, in the end we gathered 237 judges (some 60 more than in 2021) to blind-taste and assess the record
18,244 wines submitted from 54 countries. Our specialist panels – which included 55 Masters of Wine and 16 Master Sommeliers – this year awarded 50 Best in Show, 163 Platinum, 678 Gold, 5,900 Silver and 8,074 Bronze medals. For DWWA 2022, our four Co-Chairs were responsible for re-tasting all the Gold wines the Regional Chairs had confirmed, establishing and maintaining a benchmark and resolving any discrepancies. The Co-Chairs also tasted flights of wines alongside each panel in order to ensure that all the panels were judging at the same level.
CO-CHAIR
Sarah Jane Evans MW
Evans is an award-winning journalist who began writing about wine in the 1980s. She started drinking Spanish wine and Sherry while a student at Cambridge University, starting her lifelong love affair with the country’s wines, food and culture. In 2006 she became a Master of Wine, writing her dissertation on Sherry and winning the Robert Mondavi Winery Award. A past chair of the Institute of Masters of Wine, Evans is a member of the Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino in Spain, and is its current chair. She divides her time between contributing to leading magazines such as Decanter, writing books – including her new work The Wines of Central and Southern Spain, due out in early 2023 (£35 Infinite Ideas) – wine education and travelling to judge wines internationally.
CO-CHAIR
Andrew Jefford
A Decanter contributing editor, Jefford has been writing and broadcasting about wine (as well as food, whisky, travel and perfume) since the 1980s. He writes a monthly column in Decanter magazine and other occasional features including for decanter.com. His many awards for his work include eight Glenfiddich Awards and eight Louis Roederer Awards. First a DWWA judge back in 2004, he has judged in every edition of the competition since, becoming a Co-Chair in 2018. After 15 months as a senior research fellow at Adelaide University, 2009-2010, he moved with his family to Languedoc, close to Pic St-Loup. He acts as academic advisor to The Wine Scholar Guild, and a collection of his writings on wine, Drinking with the Valkyries, is to be published in early September (£25 Académie du Vin Library).
CO-CHAIR
Michael Hill Smith MW
Hill Smith was the first Australian to become a Master of Wine, in 1988. He is a wine consultant and producer – as co-founder of Shaw & Smith in the Adelaide Hills, and at Tolpuddle in Tasmania – an international wine judge, occasional wine writer and lapsed restaurateur. First a DWWA judge in 2004, in 2008 he was awarded the Order of Australia for his contribution to the Australian wine industry. He believes passionately in the future of Australian fine wine, and
