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This country is officially the best in the world for wine (and no, it’s not France)

Spain, South Africa, the USA and even the UK boast the finest wines in the world right now

Ed Cunningham
Written by
Ed Cunningham
News Editor, UK
bottles of wine
Photograph: Shutterstock
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Naming the best country in the world for wine is highly contested territory (or terroir, perhaps). After all, plenty of countries produce magnificent wines, from the traditional vineyards of France and Winelands of South Africa to the vast wineries of the USA. How can any one of them really, truly be better than all the others?

Well, there are few better to judge the finest wines on the planet than the Decanter World Wine Awards. The world’s biggest wine competition, the 2023 edition of Decanter saw 8,250 wines from 57 countries judged by 240 experts.

According to the Decanter World Wine Awards 2023, the best country for wine in the world right now is... Australia! That’s right, not France. A whopping ten Aussie wines were awarded ‘Best in Show’, more than any other country.

Next up was both France and Spain, which took eight ‘Best in Show’ prizes each, while Italy followed up with seven award-winning bottles.

As for the best of the rest? Taking three ‘Best in Show’ prizes was Portugal, while Argentina, Germany, Greece and South Africa boasted two prize wines. Austria, Chile, Serbia, New Zealand, the USA and, surprisingly, the UK all received one ‘Best in Show’ award.

So if you’re after the best wines in the world right now, Oz is the place to be! You can take a read of the full list of winners on the official Decanter World Wine Awards website here.

Did you see that Paris’ best baguette has been crowned? 

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