With a presentation in Athens began the promotional campaign of the largest wine forum on the Balkans - The Balkans International Wine Competition, which will be held in Sofia from 14 to 17 June 2012.

This project was presented by Konstantinos Lazarakis MW, the only Master of Wine in the Balkans, Chairman of the Competition and Galina Niforou, Managing Director of BIWC 2012.

Let us state that the competition is open to all wine producers from the countries of the Balkan Peninsula.

In the hall of WSPC (Wine & Spirits Professional Consultants) in Athens this event attracted most of the leading journalists of Greek wine media who showed great interest towards the event and wished success to the wines of the Balkans.

To feel the atmosphere of BIWC, the hosts masterminded a blind tasting of five Bulgarian and five Greek wines. The Balkans International Wine Competition is one of the few competitions in Europe, which follow the Australian model of evaluation, similar to the Decanter World Wine Award, which enables real-evaluation of competing wines.

Wines presented at the blind tasting were:

1. Pitos 2008, Dragomir, Bulgaria
2. Limniona 2007, Zafirakis, Greece
3. Cabernet Franc 2009, Castra Rubra, Bulgaria
4. Stallion 2009, Angelus Estate, Bulgaria
5. 2007 Gaia Estate, Nemea, Greece
6. Ovilos 2006, Vivlia Chora, Greece
7. BV 2008, Enira, Bessa Valley, Bulgaria
8. Question Mark 2008, Katarzyna, Bulgaria
9. Cabernet Franc 2009, Castra Rubra - the wine was served 2 times (number 3 and number 9) to verify the capability of evaluating committee
10. 2004 Grand Reserve, Boutari, Greece

Who will winThe BIWC Grand Trophy will be determined by the international panel of judges on June 14 and June 15, 2012 in Sofia. We will only give a hint that all involved wines were assessed as impressive and such results would rank them among the big winners of the Balkans International Wine Competition 2012.

With nearly 1.8 million tons wine production per year, the BALKAN region ranks 5th in the world, right after the largest wine producing countries Italy, France, Spain and USA. For the last decade the BALKANS has made ​​enormous progressin the quality of its wines and can state its claim as a key player on the world wine stage.

The next BIWC presentation will be held in Sofia in April, after which Belgrade and Skopje will be also included in the promotional campaign.

We wish success to all participants in the first edition of BIWC 2012 in Sofia, Bulgaria in June 2012!