7TH EDITION
THE BALKANS INTERNATIONAL WINE COMPETITION & FESTIVAL 2018 SOFIA, BULGARIA, MAY 17-20, 2018
Dear wine producers,
We are pleased to invite you to the seventh edition of
THE BALKANS INTERNATIONAL WINE COMPETITION & FESTIVAL 2018, which will take place from May 17-20, 2018 at Grand Hotel Sofia.(
https://www.balkanswine.eu/en/)
For more than seven years, the BIWC has become a byword for excellent wines, prestige and popularity of wines from the region.
Every year we are also enjoying increasing interest from the international jury and from the visitors of the Balkan Wine Festival. Please, find attached the presentation of the BIWC.
Use preferential prices until April 10 and join the largest Balkan wine event!
BIWC 2018 New Vision!
Greater media coverage, newer and more modern image! Check out our new logo and the new look of the medals that will tell you about your achievements!
Especially for BIWC 2018!
This year we are starting a partnership with the biggest Chinese wine organisation,
INTERWINE CHINA (
http://www.interwine.org/en/). The agreement of cooperation to the Balkan wines
will be signed on March 28 in Guangzhou, China. A series of events will be prepared to
promote the BIWC 2018 medalists.
The Balkan wine feast will be visited by 30 importers from the USA, China and Japan, as well as many others who have already expressed their interest – Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland, Great Britain and others.
New to BIWC 2018!
Change the Contest Regulation! – From this year, the BIWC regulation will be changed and the wines will be evaluated by the 100 point system (up to now the 20 – ball system) and one more DOUBLE GOLD. This will happen for several reasons:
1. Most wineries use the 100-ball system as a marketing tool and proudly show their points.
2. The use of the new DOUBLE GOLD medal will allow exceptional wines to shine and facilitate the process of determining Trophies in the different categories.
3. Here is how the assessment itself will look like:
95-100 – DOUBLE GOLD
90-95 – GOLD
86-89 – SILVER
82-85 – BRONZE
New at the Balkan Wine Festival! – Casavino’s Wine Shop – to make it easier for visitors who want to buy wine from the Festival.
Media Coverage
New media channels will surprise all professionals and wine lovers in Sofia, Bulgaria and the world! International, regional and national TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, web& social networks will cover THE BALKANS INTERNATIONAL WINE COMPETITION & FESTIVAL 2018.
4 world-renowned media will be media partners of BIWC 2018: CHEERS magazine – USA (most famous magazine in the US with on-Trade direction), BEVERAGE DYNAMICS – USA (most famous magazine in the US with off-Trade direction), WINE KINGDOM – JAPAN (most famous magazine in Japan with off-focus Trade) and WINE IN CHINA magazine – CHINA and many more regional and international media.
JUDGES 2018
Chairman of the BIWC – Konstantinos Lazarakis MW – The first Master of Wine in the Balkans and South East Europe
Count John Umberto Salvi MW – United Kingdom/France
Jo Ahearne MW – Australia
Isa Bal MS – United Kingdom/ Turkey
Hing Cheng – Hong Kong/China
Elias Macovela – Portugal
Martin Smid – Check Republic
Horia Hasnas – Romania
Igor Lukovic – Serbia
Peder Larsen – Denmark
Dimitar Nikolov – Bulgaria and many more.
For more information about the BIWC 2016 Jury, please visit our website: https://www.balkanswine.eu/en/pages/Competition/Judges/
BIWC Trophies 2016: For the second year, “The best Winery of the Balkans” will be selected. This will be the winery with most medals in the Competition!
Trophies will be given for the following categories:
Dry White Wine
Dry Red Wine
Dry Rosé Wine
Sparkling Wine
Dessert Wine
Best Wine from Indigenous Balkan Variety
NEW!!! Best Orange wine
Best Label Design
We encourage you to take advantage to be a part of the 7th edition of the BIWC to ensure the future success of your business and look forward to welcome you on the BALKANS INTERNATIONAL WINE COMPETITION & FESTIVAL 2018 in Sofia. Good luck!
Konstantinos Lazarakis, MW
BIWC Chairman
Eng. Galina Niforou, Wine MBA
Managing Director
