Thursday May 1, 2003

BEATING THE FRENCH AT THEIR GAME

An English vineyard owner has scooped three top awards for her wines at two prestigious French wine festivals.

Betty-Ann Cundall, who owns the Château des Chaberts in Provence, has taken gold, silver and bronze medals for her 2002 Coteaux Varois wines at the '14ème Concours National des Vins Vinifiéspar le Vigneron Indépendant' - a premier event for independent wine growers, held in Nuits Saint Georges, and the Caves Particulières in Paris. Her wines have won awards every year since 1974.

Said WineDrive's Maurice Carroll: "Vignerons place particular importance on the Nuits Saint Georges event because although it includes wines from all the French regions, the awards reflecting the best of each appellation by comparing like-with-like."

The event's awards are greatly prized with more than 3,500 wines blind tasted this year. According to Vignoble Michel Gassier of Languedoc, whose 2001 Costiers de Nîmes won a gold medal, the festival is particularly important 'because the wines are being judged by expert wine tasters who are recognised throughout the industry'.

Altogether, ten of winedrive.com's 100 vineyards picked up nine gold, seven silver and five bronze medals at Nuits Saint Georges. Added Maurice Carroll: "It certainly helps the buyer heading for France to know that a wine he or she wants to buy has been appraised by experts from the French industry itself."

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