Are competition medals worth anything or are they completely meaningless?
It depends on the competition, because all but a few are pretty worthless from a consumer point of view. In the UK, the Decanter World Wine Awards (with which I’m involved) and the International Wine Challenge (which I’m not) both have credibility. As a rule, gold medals, as roughly 2 – 3% of total entries, are a yardstick of quality, silver medals up to a point too. Commendeds are wooden spoons really.
