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

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

A wide variety of styles, with Australia dominating from East Coast to West. But no Golds this year

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…

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

Riesling has begun to carve a real niche for itself Down Under. At a recent seminar, Chris Losh joined a team of eager sommeliers as they got to grips with the regional styles of Clare and Eden Valleys – and marvelled at the grape’s ability to provide wines that represent astonishing value for money

Australia’s key white and red varietals have come a long way over the past 10 years, with some very definite differences from one region to the next. Chris Losh sits in and watches as a team of sommeliers learn to tell their Margaret River from their Adelaide Hills

The New World’s emerging white wine categories have been patchy in previous SWAs. But this year, there were some genuinely impressive – and cheap – wines