France Leads the International Wine Challenge With 849 Medals

The International Wine Challenge announced its 2026 Champion Wines and Winemakers on Wednesday, with France taking two of the top wine awards and leading the overall medal table, while Argentina, Italy and Portugal each claimed one of the competition’s highest honors.

The annual competition, now in its 42nd year, said its top awards were decided after multiple rounds of blind tasting by international judging panels working across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the United Kingdom. Gold medal winners moved on to trophy judging, and the best of those entries competed for the international champion titles.

France finished first on the 2026 medal table with 849 medals, including 67 Gold medals and 14 Trophies. Champagne led the regional Gold medal standings with 28, followed by Burgundy with 26. Two French wines then went on to win champion titles.

Rare Champagne’s Rare Magnum 2012 was named Champion Sparkling Wine, also receiving the Daniel Thibault Trophy. The Champagne scored 98 points, placing it among the joint highest-scoring wines in the competition. Organizers said judges praised its balance, citrus character, hazelnut notes and long finish.

Maison Albert Bichot’s Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru Domaine du Pavillon 2024 was named Champion White Wine. The Burgundy scored 97 points and had already won several other awards in the competition, including the International Chardonnay Trophy, the French White Trophy, the White Burgundy Trophy and the Corton Charlemagne Trophy.

France also picked up one of the individual winemaking awards. Estelle Roy of La Chablisienne in Burgundy was named White Winemaker of the Year, a title she also won in 2024. According to the competition, La Chablisienne won three Gold medals and two Trophies this year.

Argentina won the top red wine prize. Huentala Wines’ Huentala Calizo Albar Block 06 Malbec 2023 from Mendoza was named Champion Red Wine after scoring 97 points. The wine had already received the Mendoza Malbec Trophy, the Argentinian Malbec Trophy and the Argentinian Red Trophy. Argentina won 11 Gold medals in the competition, and 10 of them came from Mendoza.

Italy’s highest distinction came in the sweet wine category. Tenuta di Capezzana’s Vinsanto Capezzana Riserva 2018 from Tuscany was named Champion Sweet Wine and received the Alois Kracher Trophy. The wine scored 97 points. It marked the third straight year that Tenuta di Capezzana won the champion sweet wine award, according to the competition.

Italy also picked up the award for Best Wine in First Year of Production. Derbusco Cives’ Franciacorta Pas Dosé Épique 2016 scored 96 points and also won the Italian Sparkling Trophy and the Franciacorta Trophy. Italy rose from fifth to fourth in the global medal table this year, with strong results from Piedmont, Veneto, Campania and Franciacorta as well as Tuscany.

Portugal won the champion title in fortified wine with Menin Porto Tawny 80 Anos. The wine scored 98 points and received both the Port Trophy and the Tawny Port Trophy before being named Champion Fortified Wine and awarded the Manuel Lozano Trophy. The competition said Portugal moved from fourth place in 2025 to third place in the 2026 medal rankings, and its Gold success rate was just over 9%. The Douro region accounted for 23 Gold medals, the highest regional total outside France.

The competition’s individual winemaker awards were spread across five countries and wine styles. Australia’s Ed Carr of House of Arras in Tasmania was named Sparkling Winemaker of the Year for the second time. House of Arras won four Gold medals this year, and its Grand Vintage 2017 scored 96 points and took the Australian Sparkling Trophy.

Spain had a strong showing in the individual categories. Javier Martínez de Salinas of Rioja producer Bodegas Olarra was named Red Winemaker of the Year, which the competition said was the first time the award had gone to a winemaker from Spain. Bodegas Olarra won 19 medals, including Golds for Olarra Clásico Reserva 2021 and Reciente Reserva 2021.

Spain’s Sergio Martínez of Emilio Lustau in Jerez was named Fortified Winemaker of the Year for the seventh time and for the third year in a row. Emilio Lustau’s entries won the Amontillado Trophy, the Cream Sherry Trophy and the Pedro Ximénez Trophy. Martínez said in a statement, “This is amazing, this is a dream.”

Austria’s Hans Tschida of Hans Tschida Angerhof in Burgenland was named Sweet Winemaker of the Year. It was his sixth consecutive win in that category and his 12th since 2010. His wines won three Gold medals and one Trophy in the 2026 competition. Tschida said the award reflected a winemaking approach with “no compromise in the way that we make our wines.”

The International Wine Challenge also gave its lifetime achievement award to Pieter Ferreira, the founding cellar master and chief operating officer at Graham Beck in South Africa. Ferreira is widely associated with the development of South Africa’s Cap Classique sparkling wine sector and now produces wine with his wife, Anne, under their own Pieter Ferreira Cap Classique label.

Ferreira said the award also recognized the broader Cap Classique industry. “It is important that we recognise the contribution of the many Cap Classique producers who have taken this category forward,” he said. “There are so many talented people who have worked incredibly hard over the years. We have learnt from each other, challenged each other and, ultimately, raised the quality of the category.”

Chris Ashton, director of the International Wine Challenge, said the top awards reflected the competition’s most rigorous judging stages. “Each winning wine has succeeded through a series of rigorous blind tastings by an international panel of experts, while the individual awards recognise winemakers whose skill, consistency and dedication have placed them at the forefront of their field,” Ashton said.

The 2026 results also reinforced the strength of some of the competition’s most established wine regions. Champagne and Burgundy drove France’s medal total, Mendoza dominated Argentina’s Gold medal count, the Douro led Portugal’s performance, and Rioja helped Spain hold second place on the overall medal table. Spain’s ranking, together with the individual awards for Javier Martínez de Salinas and Sergio Martínez, gave the country two of the five winemaker titles this year.

The competition said its judging system is designed to offer consumers a quality benchmark through medal stickers displayed on bottles. Under the current format, wines are first awarded Gold, Silver, Bronze or Commended status. Gold medal winners then advance to trophy rounds, and the top entries from those rounds compete for the international champion honors announced this week.

This year’s champion wine winners were Rare Magnum 2012 from Rare Champagne for sparkling, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru Domaine du Pavillon 2024 from Maison Albert Bichot for white, Huentala Calizo Albar Block 06 Malbec 2023 from Huentala Wines for red, Vinsanto Capezzana Riserva 2018 from Tenuta di Capezzana for sweet, and Menin Porto Tawny 80 Anos from Menin for fortified wine. The winemaker winners were Ed Carr for sparkling, Estelle Roy for white, Javier Martínez de Salinas for red, Hans Tschida for sweet and Sergio Martínez for fortified.