Belgium wins world blind wine-tasting competition

Belgium has won the first world blind wine-tasting competition for teams, with Denmark and England finishing second and third, the event’s organisers said. Philippe Ketelslegers, Filip Mesdom, Eric Derenne and Serge Condens took top honours at the competition held in the south-western French town of Léognan, near France's winegrowing capital of Bordeaux. A total of 16 teams from around the world including South Africa, China, Russia, Argentina and Quebec took part. The competition aimed to "bring together... all these amateurs, tasters from the world over, who can sometimes feel isolated in their home countries," said Philippe de Cantenac, a journalist for the French wine monthly La Revue du Vin, which organised the event. The teams, blind-tasting twelve fine wines from around the world, had to identify their countries of origin, the grape varieties used in them, their appellations and their vintages. A second edition of the competition will be held next year in another French city, de Cantenac said.

(AFP)