Moravian wines enchanted New York, received ovations in gold and platinum

Three platinum and two silver medals for the winery Tesařík from Prušánky and became our most successful representative. The long term high quality of their wines was confirmed by docent Miloš Michlovský with two platinum and two gold medals. One platinum each was awarded to the wineries Miroslav Bočko, Josef Dufek, Šabata, Štěpán Maňák, U Kapličky, Žůrek, Vican family winery and Šlechtitelská stanice vinařská Velké Pavlovice. Out of 184 competing wines from the Czech Republic, besides 13 platinum wines, another 26 wines were awarded gold medals, 78 silver and 49 bronze.

13 platinum, 26 gold, 78 silver and 49 bronze medals

The international jury included jurors from 11 countries, the Czech Republic was represented by Ing. Ondřej Novotný from Vinné sklepů Maršovice v.o.s., who was selected by lot from several candidates. "Participation in such a competition was above all a great experience. America evaluates wines in a different way than we are used to in Europe. The evaluation at the Great American International Wine Competition was much more complex, our scoreboard is only one of the criteria that are judged there. Overall, I would say that the evaluation is more consumer-oriented, with high scores going mainly to delicious, understandable, consumer-appealing wines. Much less attention is paid to the oenological finesse than at our competitions," Novotný said upon his return.

GRAMIWC was held at the RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) conference facilities in Henrietta, upstate New York, and like most competitions in the United States, it is a charity competition. The bulk of the proceeds go to the Intervol Foundation, which collects and distributes medical equipment and supplies to countries where they are most needed. This year, the competition management has taken an unusual step. "Twenty countries participated in the competition, and it is thanks to them that we are able to raise funds to help those in need. That's why we came up with the idea of returning part of the funds to charity in the countries where the wines come from. We've drawn three wineries to send $500 to decide which charity they will donate to," said competition director Ron Dougherty.

From the Czech Republic, the lot fell on the Slovak winery Dvůr za Starýma Horama from Boršice. Petr Gottwald had a quick choice: " If this opportunity presents itself, we would like to support our home region, where we live, the Zlín Region, specifically the Uherské Hradiště region. We are donating the charity amount to the PAHOP health institute in Uherské Hradiště. They are dedicated to palliative and hospice care, they are great and they take care of the elderly and (unfortunately) also young children."

The participation of wines from the Czech Republic was financially supported by the Wine Fund of the Czech Republic, and their participation was organized by the Winesupporter.com initiative.