Revealing the Top 100 wines from Sud de France

Thursday 26 October is an important date for the wine trade diary. Come and taste the wines, meet the producers and discover the new stars from Occitanie.

On 26 October the annual Top 100 wines from Languedoc-Roussillon Sud de France/Sud Ouest competition comes alive, with the newly selected wines ready for you to taste. In addition, the visiting producers will bring over some of their own special selections. So expect to discover wines that are new to the UK market as well as smaller-batch and rarer wines from producers who aim to surprise you with their vision and experimentation.
This year a surge in red wines attaining Top 100 status highlights the strengths that the region has long established and focused on. Trade judges at the blind tasting comprise senior buyers whose experience identifies wines that will appeal strongly to the UK market and impressively reflect their individual terroir. New for this year, they recognised many strong contenders for the top trophies and so added a second tier of ‘Wines of Distinction’.
The event offers great diversity. Wines for everyday dining, through to wines for celebrations, from small family producers, well-established co-operatives and négociants all feature in the Top 100. Positively, there is an increasing share of wines with organic and sustainable credentials. Well-known brands and challenging newcomers line up side by side. This year 67% of the Top 100 wines are seeking UK distribution.
A huge amount of rigorous tasting has led up to this tasting. In the summer, chairman of the judges Tim Atkin MW and 18 principal buyers from both the on- and off-trade, along with top writers, blind-tasted 413 wines from 131 producers. Reflecting quality across the vast region, 61 producers are represented in this year’s Top 100.

THE SUD DE FRANCE 2023 TOP 100 TASTING
■ Thursday 26 October 2023
■ 10.30am–5pm
■ The View at Royal College of Surgeons, 38-43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PE (Holborn tube)
■ Please register to attend at suddefrancetop100.co.uk/discoveryshow