Hosted by H.E. Mr Juan Salazar Sparks, the 2019 OIV Awards ceremony was held in the suites of the Embassy of Chile in Paris. The event was attended by numerous representatives of the Diplomatic Corps, together with OIV President Ms Regina Vanderlinde, OIV Director General Mr Pau Roca, Award Jury President Ms Azélina Jaboulet-Vercherre, and Award Jury Scientific Secretary Mr Jean-Luc Berger.

The renown and prestie of this mark of international recognition were confirmed once again this year by the high quality level demonstrated by the 2019 Award winners in each of the fields represented: scientific and technical, literary, historical, and artistic.

A total of 11 Awards and 9 Special Mentions were given out by the international OIV Jury.

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After praising the work of Jean-Luc Berger, who carried out this role with the greatest of skill in recent years, the CST was unanimous about a career path that meets the requirements of an essential position for the review of scientific and technical works submitted to the OIV Awards.

An engineer in oenology and viticulture (Changins School of Viticulture and Oenology in Switzerland), Richard Pfister was awarded the Swiss Union of Oenologists’ prize for his thesis on sensory analysis entitled ‘La méthodologie de l’olfaction en parfumerie : Possibilités d’application à l’analyse sensorielle des vins’ (The olfaction methodology in perfumery: possible applications for the sensory analysis of wine).

After working as an oenologist in Spain and several years dedicated to the creation of perfumes, he became an international consulting oenologist and sensory consultant. He has also taught at a number of prestigious wine schools (Changins School of Viticulture and Oenology in Switzerland, the Institute of Vine and Wine Science (ISVV) at the University of Bordeaux in France, and the AgroSup Dijon School of Agronomic Engineering, also in France).

In addition, Richard Pfister is an international expert wine judge, an OIV and VINOFED observer, a book reviewer for works submitted to the OIV Awards, an international speaker and trainer, the author of oenological articles for a number of French, Swiss and Italian journals, and, since 2006 he has been editor of Objectif (a Swiss magazine dedicated to viticulture, oenology and arboriculture).

He has been a Council member of the Fondation Internationale des Sciences et Culture de la Vigne et du Vin in Aigle, Switzerland, since 2013.

His work, ‘Les parfums du vin’ (The perfumes of wine), a book on sensory analysis, received the OIV Award in 2015.

We extend a warm welcome to Richard Pfister among the members of the OIV Award Jury!

During the press conference held at the headquarters of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, the Director General of the OIV, Pau Roca, presented the first estimations for world wine production in 2019.

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PPT Presentation

2019 Wine production first data estimations

OIV Director General, Pau Roca, opened the conference "Wine, Environment & Society" on Tuesday 5^th November2019 with an intervention focusing on "Global Environment Issues and Impact on Society".

Suzanne Mustacich, contributing editor for Wine Spectator, was the master of ceremonies in this conference, in which the OIV expert and the Organisation's ENVIRO group (Sustainable development and climate change) president, Professor Hans Schultz, (also president of Hochschule Geisenheim University), has participated by speaking about the "Impact of warming climate on the wine production".

The speaker's panel was completed by the Research Director of Bordeaux ISVV, INRA: Eric Giraud-Héraud, who spoke on "the impact of consumers requesting wineries to produce 'clean and green' wines".

A discussion panel followed their interventions with the participation of Jeremy Cukierman MW, Director of KEDGE Wine & Spirit Academy; Caroline Feely, Director of Château Feely; Caroline Frey, owner & Oenologist in Château La Lagune; Kim Forsberg, Sustainability Manager Vingruppen (Sweden), in the picture below.

New biological and organic modes of cultivation, such as more eco-friendly packaging and transports logistics, where part of the main points discussed.

About the great Wine Capitals Global Network

The Great Wine Capitals is a network of ten major global cities in both the northern and southern hemispheres, which share a key economic and cultural asset: their internationally renowned wine regions.

This network encompasses the so-called ‘Old’ and ‘New’ worlds of wine, and it aims to encourage travel, education and business exchanges between the prestigious wine regions of Adelaide, Bilbao, Bordeaux, Lausanne, Mainz, Mendoza, Porto, San Francisco, Valparaiso and Verona.

Being founded in 1999, the Network has developed and introduced several projects, initiatives and programs with the objective of achieving excellence in tourism, business services and education within the global alliance of its renowned wine regions.

On 15 November 2019, over 200 participants attended the 7th Wine Track® event, held in Reims (France).

Under the high patronage of the OIV, this symposium co-organised by the Society of Chemical Experts of France (SECF) and the Champagne-Ardennes section of the Union of Oenologists of France was a unique opportunity for scientists to discuss the tools and techniques that help ensure the traceability and guarantee the authenticity of vinicultural products, especially in relation to counterfeiting and fraud.

OIV Scientific Coordinator Jean-Claude Ruf took the opportunity to highlight the OIV’s long-standing commitment in these areas, particularly through the creation of international standards relating to:

• the definition of products,
• oenological practices, in particular as regards consumer safety and maintaining the authentic character and organoleptic qualities of wines,
• labelling rules,
• the implementation of traceability standards, and
• the implementation of analytical standards to monitor this traceability and origin.

Traceability and authentication systems require a high level of trust among operators, especially in blockchain systems, as well as a certain level of interoperability between systems.

As regards authenticity, while methods to measure light isotopes are still widely used, the analysis of non-traditional isotopes, of trace elements, can be used to show that each wine has its own natural isotopic signature. Similarly, other isotopes such as those of nitrogen can serve as a geographic marker.

Finally, non-aggressive methods of laser ablation can detect counterfeiting by analysing the container, which also has a specific chemical signature.

It would therefore seem that the different methods, such as the analysis of stable isotopes or of certain light isotopes, as well as the determination of trace elements or proton analysis, constitute complementary tools that open up new horizons and perspectives in the field of traceability and authentication.