Judging    

The Judging System

Wines will be grouped according to region, style, grape varieties, vintages and price points before the judging. Only grape varieties and vintages are revealed to the judges.

The scoring system is based on 100 points system. Only trophy, gold, silver or bronze medals are awarded. Not more than 10% of the total submission will be awarded a trophy or gold and not more than 45% of the total submission will be awarded a medal.

85 to 100 - Gold (not more than 10% of the total submission)
77.5  to 84.9 - Silver
70.0  to 77.4 - Bronze

Wines awarded more than 85 points automatically qualify for the Trophy round of judging. The Top of the Reds and Top of the Whites will be chosen by all the judges, and are awarded gold trophies.

Assessment

The judges will be looking out for quality wines which express a good and appropriate flavour intensity, balance between the key elements in the wine and a good length and quality in aftertaste. Wines will additional wow factors would stand out further.

The assessment will be based on:
           
  1. Sight      
   
• Clarity
• Colour
     
  2. Nose      
   
• Bouquet
• Genuineness
• Quality
     
  3. Taste      
   
• Intensity
• Genuineness
• Quality
• Finish
• Appeal
     
  4. Overall Impression      
   
• Typicality
• Quality
     

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WSAA 2011 Distinguished Panel of Judges

The panel of judges consists of both international and regional judges. The former brings to the panel their international judging experience while the latter will be able to represent the expectations of the markets. The Asian judges comprise of Asian wine sommeliers, wine educators and wine journalists.

Heading the WSAA panel is wine guru John Chua, a renowned international wine judge and accredited lecturer for L'Ecole du Vin de Bordeaux for Asia.

The panel consists of:
• John Chua
• Subash Arora
• Cheong Hai Poh
• Yohan Handoyo
• Pairach Intaput
• Cletus Lim
• Thomas Ling
• Kym Milne
• To Viet


Chief Judge  
   
John Chua
President, Chinelli Consultancy Pte Ltd, Singapore		  

A wine veteran, John is a holder of numerous international wine certificates and an accredited lecturer for l’Ecole du Vin de Bordeaux (Bordeaux Wine School) for Southeast Asia.

Since 1991, John has trained 27 fully-qualified sommeliers to deliver the first-class service that is expected on board Singapore Airlines. He was also a consultant and trainer on wine and spirits for the cabin crew of various airlines. John has been involved in wine appreciation advisory in many prestigious country clubs.

In 1996, John was inducted into the International Wine Judging Panel and had been judging in international and regional wine competitions since. Some of the major competitions include:
• Selections Mondiales • Mundus Vini Internationale
Weinakademie Gmbh
• Concours Mondiale de Bruxelles • Michelangelo International Wine Awards
• China Wine & Spirits Competition • Spirits and Wines Asia
• Catad’Or Hyatt • Wine Style Asia Award
• Mondial du Pinot Noir • Korean Wine Challenge
• Malaysian Winex-1 • Sydney International Wine Competition

He is also a wine judge for "Concourso Internacional de Vinos Y Espirituous, Seville, Spain.

John was named “Wine Personality of the Year” by The Wine Review in June 1994.  He runs his own consulting firm - Chinelli Consultancy, and his objective now is to share his knowledge and hands-on experience on viniculture and local cuisines and make it a rewarding and an enriching experience for all. He is also the official sherry educator for Consejo Regulador of Sherry-Xeres-Jerez Y Manzanilla - Sanlucar de Barrameda.


   

Subhash Arora
Editor, delWine, India		  

Subhash is an IT entrepreneur with a B.Tech from IIT Delhi and MS and MBA from University of Minnesota, USA.

He is the founder/ president of Delhi Wine Club, established in 2002. The club promotes and educates on wine, via their web portal delhiwineclub.com, India's first wine webzine. It was voted as the Best Wine Club of India in 2007.

Subhash judged at Vinitaly 2006, Mundusvini 2007 - 2008 and India Wine Challenge 2007 - 2008 in London and Delhi. He was also invited for Mundusvini 2009 and Concours Mondial de Bruxelles 2009 in Valencia. He was invited for judging in Cape Town by South African Airways for SAA Wines, 2009 Selection. In addition, Subhash was Chairman of the Jury for the BT More wine competition for Indian wines in Delhi, 2008.

He founded the Indian Wine Academy to offer professional marketing consultancy in 2003. The academy helps foreign producers to penetrate and work with the Indian market.

Subhash also co-authored the ‘Italian Wine Guide 2006’ - the first of its kind published in India to showcase Italian wines available in India. Commissioned by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE), 30,000 copies of the guide were distributed by ICE.

Aside from delWine, the multi-talented Subhash writes for international magazines and newspapers on wine. Publications include Ambrosia, FHRAI, IT Plus, Wine & Dine Singapore, and Enotra and Spice. He was voted the Best Wine Journalist of India by Wine Business International Survey in 2007.
   

Cheong Hai Poh
President , Food and Beverage Managers' Association (FBMA), Singapore 		 

Mr Cheong Hai Poh is a highly accomplished and result-driven executive with more than 20 years of food and beverage experience. His achievements include Food and Beverage Manager, World Gourmet Summit 2004 and 2006 and People Excellence Award 2004, Spring Singapore.

As President of the Food and Beverage Managers' Association (FBMA) for the ninth consecutive year, Mr Cheong has contributed successfully to the growth of the association. He will continue to guide the direction and growth of the FBMA, making opportunities for a strong potential growth. Mr Cheong is also one of the pioneers involved in the formation of the Hospitality Alliance Singapore and is currently serving as the Chairman for the Alliance. He has served as judge for various industry-related competitions and was involved as an overseas judging panelist in the Food and Hotel Malaysia Culinaire – 2007 & 2009 organised by the Malaysian Food and Beverage Executives' Association, as well as the Cambodia Camfood, Camhotel competition 2010.

Mr Cheong also holds other various appointments including Board Director of the Workforce Development Agency and Deputy Chairman of the Hospitality Services Academic Advisory Committee with Institute of Technical Education Singapore. He is also a Council member of the Food & Beverage Industry Skills and Training Council, Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund Advisory Council, as well as Tourism Industry Skills and Training Council initiated by the Workforce Development Agency. Mr Cheong has been the Chairman of the Technical Working Group & Judging Committee of Hospitality Asia Platinum since 2002 and he is a member of the prestigious Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Bailliage du Singapour as well as the Confrérie du Sabre d’Or Singapore chapter.
   

Yohan Handoyo
Wine Director, Decanter Wine House, Indonesia		  

Yohan is a wine expert. He is currently the advisor for QuadWine, a wine investment company in Singapore. He is also the GM and Wine Director at Decanter. He has several publications including ‘Rahasia Wine’ which was the first book on wine written in Bahasa Indonesia and won “The Best Wine Education Book in the World” as well as freelance writer / contributor in several local and international media and online publication about wine and food that attracts intensive traffic. Yohan earned his Diploma in Marketing Research from Market Research Society of Australia and Master of Commerce from School of Marketing UNSW, Sydney, Australia.
   
   

Pairach Intaput
Thai Sommelier and Gastronomie, Thailand
  

Pairach Intaput has been in the food and beverage business for over twenty years. He was the winner of Sopexa Grand Prix du Sommelier, “The Best Sommelier of Thailand” in 1996, and awarded Commandeur de Gastronomie Française from Institut de Gastronomie Française.

Pairach is a wine columnist for newspapers and wine magazines, and has conducted hundreds of wine tastings/ dinners and wine classes for independent wine clubs, hotels, restaurants, universities and John Robert Powers (Thailand). He has also established a wine school in his restaurant (Vintage 21) in Bangkok, Thailand.

Since 2001, Pairach has been judging for FBAT International Wine Challenge at IFHS Bangkok, and he recently judged at the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition 2009. He has been also been appointed by Thai Airways International, to be part of their distinguished panel in selecting wine for onboard consumption, tasting and judging 500-700 wines twice a year.
   

Cletus Lim
AIWS 		 

Cletus is the first Singaporean to hold a Diploma in Wines and Spirits (Merit) from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), London. He is currently an Associate member of the Institute of Wines and Spirits (IWS) U.K. His wine training included a stint at the Ecole du Vin du Conseil Interprofessional du Vin du Bordeaux (CIVB), France.

Cletus has years of supervisory experience in customer service. He is presently a sommelier and beverage trainer for an international airline. He is also a certified tutor and an internal assessor for the WSET Advanced Certificate course. Cletus was an invited wine judge at Wine Styles Asia Award 2009.
   
   
Thomas Ling
Partner, Entwine, Malaysia 		 


Thomas is a fellow Certified Sommelier of the Court of Master Sommeliers,United Kingdom, coincidentally the first from his country, Malaysia, in 2006. He is also the first Malaysian accredited International Burgundy and Bordeaux Educator with the BIVB and CIVB, France, respectively, and is both a Certified Specialist of Wine and Spirits (CSW, CSS) with the Society of Wine Educators, USA.

Thomas is a member of the founding committee of the Sommelier Association of Malaysia, contributing in his capacity as head of communications and special projects. He was also one of the working pioneer team members of the region’s largest wine specialty concept store chain, Denise Wines Malaysia, overseeing marketing and wine training for the establishment.

A partner at Entwine, a boutique consultancy offering niche business solutions for the food and beverage industry, Thomas is a regular invited speaker for numerous international wine talks and events, recent ones being Wine For Asia 2010; IBERWINE 2007 Madrid, Spain; the Kuala Lumpur Epicure International 2005/2006, one of Malaysia’s main feature food and wine exhibition; and the French food and beverage fair organised by then French trade and agriculture ministry arm, SOPEXA.

Thomas is also a regular on the judging panel of the annual Prestige Malaysia Wine Extravaganza from 2007 – 2010, and the tasting panel of the local popular food and wine magazine publication, Flavours.
   
   
Kym Milne MW
Owner, Global Wine Solutions, Australia		  

Kym has worked in the wine industry for over 30 years. A winemaking graduate of Roseworthy College in Australia, his experience includes winemaking in Australia, followed by a nine-year stint in New Zealand as Chief Winemaker for Villa Maria winery, also qualifying as a Master of Wine whilst in New Zealand. He then worked in UK for ten years as the director of winemaking operations for International Wine Services, managing winemaking projects throughout Europe, South Africa and South America.

In 2003 he moved back to Australia and now runs his own winemaking consultancy Global Wine Solutions, with clients in Australia and around the world. Current clients include Bird in Hand wines, Adelaide Hills; Rustenberg Wines, South Africa; Errazuriz Wines, Chile; and Villa Maria Wines, New Zealand.
   

To Viet
Wine educator, Toviet's Wine Cellar, Vietnam
  

Viet is a wine educator who writes beverage wine columns and articles for Vietnamese newspapers and magazines. He is author of ‘To the discovery of wine’ and ‘Sommelier, Profession of the Future’. Viet was also formerly a wine buyer for Groupe Casino and a sommelier at various hotels in Southern France from 1992 - 2004. He has also participated in international wine judging at Starwine 2, Philadelphia, USA in 2005; Vinisud, France 2006; and Catad’Or Hyatt, Chile 2010. Fluent in French and English, Viet is also president of the Association of Sommeliers Guild of Saigon, and a member of FIJEV (International Federation of Wine and Spirits Journalists and Writers).
   
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