Some good-value wines but the relatively low ratio of entries to medals suggests a lot of bandwagon-jumping, too

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

A big improvement on last year’s medal haul, although with nothing under a tenner, it came at a price…

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

Food Match Awards

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

With steady rather than spectacular results in 2011, the New World still seems to be struggling to get its head around this most polarising of aromatic grape varieties

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

The Gris-style, rather than Grigio-style, wines took the honours here, offering value for money and also an impressive food friendliness at a decent price

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

The Sommelier Wine Awards doesn’t give out trophies per category because we’re worried that tasters will feel under pressure to dispense extra awards in categories where they may not believe the wines are up to it. Instead, in keeping with the whole ethos of the competition, we leave the judgement up to the sommeliers…

The customers’ love of Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc shows no sign of abating, and the strong performance of this category shows why they may have a point

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

Some weird and wonderful blends and, despite the lack of Golds, a generally positive reaction from the tasters