Rafael Urrejola, Head Winemaker at Viña Undurraga, was named Red Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine Challenge (IWC) 2023, one of the world’s most influential and prestigious wine competitions, at an awards ceremony in London.
The title of Winemaker of the Year is awarded in five categories: Red Winemaker, White Winemaker, Fortified Winemaker, Sparkling Winemaker and Sweet Winemaker. Only three winemakers are nominated in each of them, and Urrejola is the only Chilean and Latin American to be included in the 2023 Red Winemaker category.
Rafael was already nominated for this accolade in 2014 and 2022 and has so far been the only representative from Chile to ever be nominated for any category of the competition. From now on he became the only Chilean and representative from the Americas to win any “Winemaker of the Year” category – in this case Best Red Winemaker – marking a significant milestone at one of the world’s foremost wine events.
He was nominated alongside a representative of France’s Burgundy region and a female winemaker from Australia in 2014. In 2022, he faced two French winemakers, both from the Burgundy region. This year, he has been nominated once again with a French winemaker from Burgundy and an Australian winemaker.
“It is tremendously exciting and rewarding to receive this important award in such a rigorous and globally significant competition, involving the blind tasting of thousands of wines from around the world of very high quality and diversity. This award pays tribute to the extraordinary work by Undurraga’s technical team and the way in which we have managed to create wines that reflect an outstanding level of quality, a recognisable style, and solid consistency across wines and vintages. It also reflects the effort we are making in Chile to offer fine wines. I feel enormously proud to be the first Chilean and American to receive this award, which will help give greater visibility to Chilean wines and their high quality,” Rafael Urrejola explains.
Winemaker of the Year Award
The Winemaker of the Year Award at the IWC is based on the results of the competition. The IWC organization gathers all of the scores awarded during the competition, then analyses and qualifies them to determine the winners. Each winery or cellar receives points for their wines if they have been awarded a Trophy, Gold Medal, Silver, Bronze, or Commended Award.
Next, the results are weighted with respect to the volume of wines presented by each producer, and finally, an average score is awarded. As such, the award of IWC Winemaker of the Year is given based on the results of the winery, but it is the head winemaker or owner who receives the recognition.
About the IWC
This year, 52 countries submitted over 6,000 wines for consideration at the 39th International Wine Challenge (IWC).
The evaluation process is based on blind tastings. The wines are grouped by region, alcohol content, and sugar level, which guarantees that similar wines are tasted together.
Each wine receiving an IWC medal has been tasted on at least three different occasions by at least two panels of judges that taste together, and then has been evaluated by two co-presidents to verify the panels’ results.
The IWC panels include experts and influential people in the international wine industry, including commercial representatives, Masters of Wine (MWs) like Tim Atkin, Sam Caporn, and Peter McCombie, plus prestigious critics such as Oz Clarke, Dr Jamie Goode, and Helen McGinn.