The view at Cité International for the 2022 Concours Lyon. Image copyright Concours Lyon.

Ainoa Winery awarded eight more medals in France.

Not just American Collegiate basketball, but French wine tastings peak in late winter. In 2022 Ainoa Winery again came out on top, with a total of eight gold and silver medals awarded to Ainoa wines at the Vinalies Internationales in Paris, the Mondial du Rosé in Provence and the Concours Lyon.

First up was Vinalies, one of the world’s most demanding venues where a total of 2244 wines competed. Ainoa Vaapukka was awarded its third gold medal at Vinalies (all for different vintages) and Ainoa Sametti and Ainoa Kaste earned silver.

At Mondial du Rosé, the world’s most prestigious tasting of rosé wines, Ainoa Kaamos was up against 951 mostly French wines. Kaamos became only the third fruit wine to ever win gold at this competition, following golds won by Ainoa Suven Taika and Ainoa Aho last year.

Together, these two tastings organized by the Oenologues de France have awarded eight gold medals to six different Ainoa wines over the last six years. These Elite Eight are the only gold medals ever awarded to wines made from berries in the organization’s history, and places Ainoa’s Finnish berry wines in the same league with some of the best traditional wines in the world.

At the end of March, results were announced from Lyon, the world capital of gastronomy where nearly 9600 wines, beers, and spirits from 51 countries competed. Not only did Ainoa Sametti earn the only gold medal awarded for a fruit wine this year in Lyon, it was also for the second year in a row give a trophy as the best spirit from Finland. Ainoa Kaamos, Ainoa Havu and Ainoa Kaste were awarded silver medals.

“The secret to our success is the berries” says CEO Paola Guerrero de Cohen. “Great wine is only possible when it starts with great fruit, and our success in tastings is only possible because we are using Finnish berries – the best in the world”.

Both the Vinalies Internationales and Mondial du Rosé publish tasting notes. Below are links to the judges’ comments about Ainoa’s wines this year:

Ainoa Vaapukka:

https://www.vinalies-internationales.com/en/resultats/medaille/i-57156

Ainoa Sametti:

https://www.vinalies-internationales.com/en/resultats/medaille/i-57155

Ainoa Kaste:

https://www.vinalies-internationales.com/en/resultats/medaille/i-57157

Ainoa Kaamos:

https://www.mondial-du-rose.com/en/resultats/medaille/i-60093

March Madness 2022