The IWC has been running for more than 30 years and is one of the largest blind tastings in the world.
IWC call on the skills of more than 300 judges, including 39 Masters of Wine, to taste more than 12,500 wines, from 51 countries and more than 430 varieties. These judges are over-seen by six chairmen, each of them leaders in their field. Between them they taste every single medal-winning wine, ensuring that only the best succeed. They are: Tim Atkin MW, Oz Clarke, Charles Metcaffe, Sam Harrop MW, Derek Smedley MW and Peter McCombie MW.
To achieve an IWC gold medal, the wine will be tasted up to six times and the results verified by one of the six IWC chairmen. In 2013, 515 gold medals were awarded across all categories of the competition. In 2013, Waitrose stocked more than 350 IWC medal winning wines.