Hungarians win golden prize at the world’s most prestigious sparkling wine competition!

The Kreinbacher Estate won a golden prize at the world’s most prestigious sparkling wine competition for the fifth time. The Hungarian sparkling wine company keeps expanding its capacities due to the growing demand.

The Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships (CSWWC) is the biggest, as well as the strictest, international competition. Specialists are tasting champagne and sparkling wine for two weeks to give out the golden and silver prizes to the world’s best drinks, Forbes reported.

The judges this year included the founder of the championship, Tom Stevenson, Master of Wine Essi Avellan, as well as champagne ambassador Simon Stockton. They had to taste more than 1,000 drinks, nominated from 30 countries from all around the world.

In the end, they gave out 128 golden and 237 silver prizes, and out of these, they will announce the winners according to countries and different categories, as well as the world’s absolute best, between the 7 and 11 of December.

The Hungarian Kreinbacher Estate received one gold and two silver prizes. The golden prize winner is the Kreinbacher Brut Classic 2016 Magnum, which is a traditional sparkling wine matured in a 1.5 l bottle for three years, giving it a rich aroma and soft bubbles. The silver prize winners are the Kreinbacher Prestige Brut and the Prestige Brut 2016 Magnum.

Another Hungarian sparkling wine producer, Carastelek Winery, won two silver prizes with their Blanc de Blancs and Classic Brut sparkling wines.

Kreinbacher also experienced double-digit growth this year regarding their produced and distributed wines and sparkling wines – which could be due to developments in online sales as a result of the changing market conditions and the opening hours of the Hungarian Bortársaság. As we reported earlier, wine consumption in Hungary has also increased since the start of the epidemic.

As Zoltán Prisztavok, the sales manager of Kreinbacher, told Forbes, their most popular wine this year is the Nagy-Somlói, but the demand is also high for the Juhfark and the new Syrah Rosé. From their sparkling wines, the most popular ones are the Extra Dry, which is a sweeter one, the Brut Classic, and the dry Brut Nature.

Besides their own products, Kreinbacher also distributes French champagnes in Hungary. The most popular ones are the Piper-Heidsieck, the Pol Roger, and the Charles Heidsieck.

To keep up with the growing demand, Kreinbacher Estate keeps expanding its capacities. For example, they increased the number of base wines that are suitable to turn into sparkling wine to 50, expanded their cultivation lands, and they use two more Coquard presses with which they can now process 300 quintals of grapes a day.

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Source: Forbes