After a shocking first year in the SWAs, Carmenère found its feet with some style this year, delivering some great wines

Riesling is making itself at home in more and more countries, but where is it performing best? Clinton Cawood joins an eager sommelier panel for a top-notch tasting that pits Old World against New World and some acknowledged masters against hungry, young upstarts

No Golds but an encouraging performance from a grape that is still largely finding its feet in the on-trade

A frankly disgraceful showing by Italy was largely redeemed by a surprise hit from an unexpected quarter

Still no Golds for Viognier, though certainly lighter, fresher, more food-friendly wines than in previous years

Astonishing value for money from the Chileans, as you’d expect, but not enough wines with the wow factor

With screwcaps to the fore, the quality of the whites (particularly) and the reds here was amazing for the price. Rosé was another matter entirely

Plenty of entries, and plenty of ambition, too, for this hot, new category. Just not quite enough balance in the wines

Over 1,500 wines can be boiled down to this: the hallowed Sommelier Wine Awards Gold List for 2011...

More ambitious pricing but some decent wines too, with Australia, Argentina and South Africa leading the way

Food Match Awards

Plenty of medals again for Chile, although the judges were most impressed stylistically with Australia and South Africa

Entries of this much-favoured grape may well have been more or less evenly split between Australia and New Zealand, but this year the latter definitely came out on top

In the past, a By The Glass award has gone to wines that match specific dishes – the theory being that they could be served by the glass as ready matches with a meal.

Good wines, good prices and a variety of styles, Syrah was one of the stand-out varieties for the New World