Ukrainian wines have won 73 medals at one of the world’s most prestigious wine competitions – the list
This year, nearly 17,000 wines from 58 countries took part in the competition, judged by 245 leading experts – sommeliers, wine critics and journalists from all over the world.
The tasting was conducted ‘blind’ – the judges knew neither the producer nor the country of origin of the wine, ensuring maximum objectivity in the assessment.
Despite this being the fourth year of full-scale war, Ukrainian producers achieved one of the best results in the country’s entire history of participation in the Decanter World Wine Awards.
In total, Ukrainian wines won 73 Silver and Bronze medals, confirming their competitiveness on the global market.
The wines were judged on aroma, taste, balance, structure, complexity and ageing potential on a 100-point scale.
Only the very best wines receive medals, and only a small proportion of the competition’s entrants achieve the highest honours.
As is traditional, the world’s leading wine-producing countries – France, Italy, Spain, the USA, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand – competed for this year’s most prestigious awards. At the same time, the organisers noted that the 2026 competition was one of the strongest in terms of the calibre of wines entered in its entire 23-year history.
France and Italy emerged as the competition’s main winners. French producers secured a record 254 top-tier awards, whilst Italy confidently took second place in terms of the number of prestigious honours.
At the same time, Spain proved to be the real sensation of the awards, not only securing its place among the top three but also setting its own all-time record for the number of top-tier medals.
The success of Ukrainian winemakers is particularly significant given that a large proportion of the country’s vineyards and wineries are operating under wartime conditions, and some wineries are located near combat zones or have suffered losses due to Russian aggression.
As a reminder, a Russian attack destroyed the production facilities of the Ukrainian liqueur brand Ruta – the production of its internationally award-winning craft balsam was hit.
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