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The international jury for 5StarWines & Wine Without Walls 2024 to expand your market globally
5StarWines
January 26 2024
To give visibility to different categories of wine, there are two sections: 5StarWines, dedicated to conventional wines, and Wine Without Walls, dedicated to wines with organic or biodynamic certification. The aim of this initiative is to promote the excellence of wine, providing producers with a tool to take their company beyond national borders, expanding and consolidating their brand identity internationally.
Internationality and quality guarantee to enter the global market
The jury of professionals selected for 5StarWines & Wine Without Walls, which has the task of tasting the wines and assigning them a score, constitutes the first and fundamental step to guarantee an international scope to the Selection itself. The judges - over seventy in total - are distinguished from each other by geographical origin, cultural background and area of specialization. The wines obtain a judgment based on an in-depth technical evaluation, which evaluate their quality and commercial value, as well according to different palates, representing diverse potential markets for the company.
To increase the possibility of its diffusion, the evaluation is also expressed through a textual tasting note in English that the judges draw up in a personalized form for each reference obtaining a score of 90/100 and above. This note also appears in the Guide, on the page dedicated to each selected wine, alongside producer information, the score achieved and a photo of the bottle.
The General Chair 2024
The General Chairs, the backbone of the Selection, provide a further level of rigor and objectivity. During the last day of blind tasting, they validate the evaluations of the wines selected for publication in the Guide, confirming or modifying the scores equal to or greater than 90/100 expressed by the panels.
The General Chairs present during the 2024 edition will be: Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW, Master of Wine and VIA Italian Wine Ambassador; Robert Joseph, editorial consultant for Meininger's Wine Business International; Bernard Burtschy, columnist at Les Echos; Daniele Cernilli, wine critic and CEO of DoctorWine; Andrea Lonardi MW, one of only two Italian Masters of Wine, vice-president of the Consorzio Tutela Vini della Valpolicella and part of the Board of Directors of Unione Italiana Vini. The first three General Chairs of whom have been part of the jury for the Selection since the first edition, which took place in 2017.
Panel Chair, Judges and Associates
In addition to the five General Chairs, the 5StarWines & Wine Without Walls jury is made up of Panel Chairs, Judges and Associates. They are high-level wine professionals from all over the world, carefully selected from Masters of Wine, Master Sommeliers, WSET Diploma graduates, Italian Wine Ambassadors and Experts of the Vinitaly International Academy, journalists, oenologists and other important figures in the sector. The complete list of members of the 2024 Jury can be consulted on the event website.
Each judge expresses a judgment based on an objective visual and organoleptic evaluation; the Panel Chairs then write the tasting notes. The Associate judges are wine industry professionals taking their first experiences in wine selections which, like 5StarWines & Wine Without Walls, see a massive participation of Italian wines. Often students of the Vinitaly International Academy, the Associates participate in the evaluation and related discussion without influencing the final score, thus deepening their knowledge of Italian wine. Creating a context in which these figures can cooperate jointly and compare in real time has at its core the objective of guaranteeing not only the objectivity of the Selection, but also a broad and varied base of points of view.
Why should Italian producers submit their wines to the 5StarWines & Wine Without Walls Jury?
The 5StarWines & Wine Without Walls Jury is the first tool that the Vinitaly and Veronafiere Selection makes available to producers. The registered wines have the opportunity to be tested, at the same time, on palates representing all the principal international markets. Once published in the Guide, the selected wines enjoy increased visibility in front of an audience of buyers and wine lovers at important international events.
Participation in 5StarWines & Wine Without Walls, with the possibility of being selected for the 5StarWines – the Book, represents a precious opportunity for wineries that want to expand the market for their wines in Italy and, above all, globally. This is particularly important for small and medium-sized Italian wine companies, which often have limited resources to invest in promoting on the global market.