5th Annual Wines of Chile Awards

Santiago de Chile, January 14-17, 2008

Once again Wines of Chile has invited a prestigious group of wine experts from the United Kingdom to participate in an intense 3-day tasting of Chilean wines in two price ranges: 4.99 to 6.99 pounds and 7.00 to 25.00 pounds in the UK market. The 9-member panel composed of wine writers, buyers, and hotel-restaurant owners, will take advantage of the moment to escape cold and wet England to enjoy a bit of Santiago's southern hemisphere sunshine and begin their task on Monday, January 14. The Chilean wine industry will have the opportunity to meet the judges and hear their opinions on Thursday, January 17 in a seminar  during the morning. The much-awaited results will be announced and awards presented that evening in a special ceremony in Palacio Cousiño.

Following opening words by Wines of Chile General Manager Ricardo Letelier and René Merino, President of Vinos de Chile, the seminar will begin with Wines of Chile UK Director Michael Cox's annual address on the "UK Market, trends and analysis", and the judges' presentations.

The Judges and their seminar topics:
	"Buying Wine for Drinking in the Sky" Peter Nixson, Wine Development Manager and Buyer, British Airways
"Sustainability and the Role of Organics" Beverley Blanning, MW,  Independent wine writer. Specialist on organic and biodynamic wines; writes for numerous publications, including Decanter magazine. Members who are logged in may access this Power Point presentation: click here
	"Jancis Robinson’s World Famous Website" Julia Harding, MW,  Personal assistant to Jancis Robinson and assistant editor for The World Atlas of Wine and the Oxford Companion to Wine.
"Less is More" Joanna Simon, Columnist, The Sunday Times newspaper, and other publications. Author of numerous food & wine books. (www.joannasimon.com)
	"Terroir, What Does it Mean?" Margaret Rand, Independent wine writer-editor and regular contributor to Decanter, Harpers, Drinks Business, and other publications. Co-author of Grapes and Wines, with Oz Clark and editor of Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book and Mitchell Beazley’s Wine Library series of wine books.
"Naturalness in Wine: How  Technology can Help" Jamie Goode, Columnist, Sunday Express newspaper and other publications. Winner of the 2007 Glenfiddich Award for Wine Writer of the year. Author of the book Wine Science and the web site www.wineanorak.com
	"Wine in the UK On-Trade" John Hoskins, MW, Owner of the hotel and restaurant, The Old Bridge in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.
"Is Being Green Important to the Trade?" Sarah Ahmed, Lawyer turned wine writer and “Wine Detective” (www.thewinedetective.co.uk) and regular contributor to harpers, Drinks Business, and Wine & Spirit, as well as The World Atlas of Wine, Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Guide, and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book
	"Sauvignon Blanc-It’s Cool" Jane Parkinson,  Journalist, Wine & Spirit magazine.
The seminar is open to members of the Chilean wine industry with prior registration. For more information, contact Carla González at 562-437-7760.