The best wines will be selected in August by the judges of the National Wine Competition 2023

The expert committees will first meet on 1 August in Mělník over the wines of the Bohemia wine region. Then the evaluation will move to South Moravia and in the Wine Centre of Excellence in Valtice the first wines will be evaluated on 10 and 11 August. August, wines from the Slovácké wine sub-region, then on 14 and 15 August from the Mikulov wine sub-region and then on 24 August from the Znojmo wine sub-region. The evaluation will conclude on 28-30 August with the assessment of wines from the Velkopavlovice wine sub-region. For this year's edition, the evaluation has also been slightly modified.

"The National Competition and Wine Salon, as the highest and largest wine competition in the country, has the ambition to become an example of the best wine evaluation practice in ours, which is why we are striving to make our evaluation system a national standard and apply to all wine competitions in our country," explained Klára Kollárová, the national sommelier, adding: "for this year's jury you have prepared a summary of the best practices and recommendations for judging wines from the Czech Czech Republic and prestigious international competitions and we want the quality and the system of all our competitions to become more stable."

The top-ranked wine from each sub-region will be awarded the title of Champion and the winners of each category will also be selected. The successful wines will be awarded medals according to their scores (Large Gold: 90+ points, Gold: 86-89.99, silver 84-85.99 and bronze 82-83.99) and the winemakers with the highest averagem scores of the wines entered in a given sub-region will be awarded the prize for the best collection. The producer of the best wine of each sub-region will also receive a barrique barrel from partners (Bohemia - Guild of Czech Winemakers, Slovácká - Uherské Hradiště, Mikulovská - the town of Mikulov, Znojemská - the town of Dolní Kounice and the Brotherhood of Winemakers and Diggers, Velkopavlovická - the town of Hustopeče). The main partners of the competition are BS Wine Supplies and Ford.

"Year by year, the number of evaluated wines is increasing, new winemakers and wineries are applying, our competition is growing. And higher competition results in higher quality of the placed and awarded wines. Customers are assured that such wines are truly exceptional, and winemakers, in turn, have a boosted interest in their wines thanks to the growing awareness of the competition. The national wine competition is thus beneficial for both parties and this is exactly what we want to achieve in the long term," said Martin Chlad, President of the Union of Winegrowers of the Czech Republic.

The best wines go on to the first ever national round of the Salon des Vins - the national Wine Competition of the Czech Republic 2024, where they will meet the winners from all other wine sub-regions. The best will advance to the final round, which will decide the gold and silver medalsch of the Wine Salon of the Czech Republic 2024, the category winners, the title of the Absolute Champion and the best collection of the competition.

Wines not only for professionals - exhibitions of wines of individual sub-regions:

The professional evaluation part in each sub-region is always followed by an exhibition of wines for the public, which will have a unique opportunity to taste a truly representative sample of the wines of a given wine sub-region.

• Wine Region Bohemia: 10 August, Prague - Suchdol, auditorium of the Czech University of Agriculture
• Znojmo sub-region: 2 September, Dolní Kounice, Kulturní dům, Rosa Coeli Historical Festival
• Slovácko sub-region: 15 and 16 September, Bzenec, Bzenec costume vintage festival
• Mikulov sub-region: 8-10 September, Mikulov, Chateau Hall, Pálava Vintage Festival
• Velkopavlovice sub-region: 7 October, Hustopeče, Amande Hotel, Burčák Festival

National wine competition - selection procedure:

More at www.narodnisoutezvin.cz.