Not a vast amount in the way of bargains, but there were some decent, unusual wines here, proving that the New World still knows how to innovate

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

There was little to excite the judges in this new category. Here’s hoping for better things from the pair in 2012

A good selection of medals from across the New World shows this is a category with real strength in depth

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

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

A successful haul for this must-list variety, with Chile achieving a bit of a David versus Goliath giant-slaying

Food Match Awards

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

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

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

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

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

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