This competition, which is open to wines produced from vineyards in mountainous or steep areas, is a point of reference for vine-growers and wine-producers in particularly demanding areas. The aim is to bring out the unique features of these wines and to introduce consumers to them, making them appreciate the cultural aspects related to mountain wine growing and the valuable contribution of vine growers to defending their territory and the environment.

The Event Committee will monitor and direct all activities associated with the 19th Annual International Mountain Wine Competition. All decisions made by the Event Committee will be final.

- altitudes over 500 meters above sea level, excluding vineyards on high plateaus.

- slopes greater than 30%.

- vines grown on terraces or embankments.

- vines grown on small islands.

The wines must comply with the OIV International Code and can be entered by wine producers from any country.

A wine producer is defined as a producer identified by a name or company name, to be shown on the label of the wines entered in the 19th International Mountain Wine Competition. Wine producers are those which transform grapes or grape must into wine, or make special wines or process wine to bring out the set characteristics required of a particular appellation of origin, or refine or age wine.

For the 19th Annual International Mountain Wine Competition only wines from lots consisting of a minimum of 500 bottles, with the bottle capacities as indicated in Section 5d), can be entered.

Effervescent wines not natural, flavoured wines and flavoured wine-based beverages or cocktails/mixtures of products are excluded. In addition, any wines that have been made by single or associated producers having been found guilty of fraud or adulteration of wines are also excluded.

Entries are divided into 8 categories:

Still wines are defined as wines that contain natural carbon dioxide at a concentration of less than one atmosphere.

Entries not complying with the categories above will be excluded from the competition. The winery will not be entitled to reimbursement of the entry fee or to return of the wine sent and not admitted.

19th CERVIM Competition  - c/o Caves des Onze Communes - Loc. Urbains, 3 - 11010 Aymavilles (AO) – ITALY, to arrive by no later than June 11th, 2011:

a) The original Entry Form, which must be completed on the Cervim web site www.cervim.org., then signed and sent to the CERVIM Secretariat, Loc. Teppe, 27 – 11020 Quart (AO) - Tel+39.0165.775792 – Fax +39.0165.771925.

If it is not possible to successfully download the completed form, the documentation is obtainable by contacting the Cervim secretariat directly.

b) Three (3) front labels and, if applicable, three (3) back labels identical to those on the wines entered in the competition and, if available, any product brochures, photos and data sheets describing the wine.

c) A copy of the documentation showing payment of the 50 Euro fee for the first wine entered and 40 Euros for each subsequent wine, as reimbursement of organization expenses, payable by bank transfer to Unicredit Banca – agenzia di Aosta, IBAN IT/28/U/02008/01201/000060043906 – CIN O – BIC: UNCRIT2T - to the order of CERVIM.

The bank transfer should clearly indicate the name of the wine producer making the transfer and specify that the payment is for “19th Annual International Mountain Wine Competition.” (bank charges are at the shipper’s expense). Wines for which no entry fee has been paid will be disqualified.

d) Six (6) bottles of wine from the same lot, containing 750 ml, or, for sweet or fortified wines only, 500 ml or 375 ml. The bottles must be fully labelled and packed in a single carton on which it should be clearly indicated that the contents are a “NON MARKETABLE SAMPLE” being shipped to the “19th Annual International Mountain Wine Competition, c/o Cave des Onze Communes – Loc. Urbains, 3 - 11010 Aymavilles (AO) – ITALY”

e) A sampling report, automatically generated during the online enrolment, which must be filled in and signed by the public official responsible for wine-sampling at the winery, or by the winery owner himself as a self-certification. The winery undertakes to allow staff in charge of taking samples access to the premises.

f) A certificate of analysis issued by the winery laboratory, showing at least the following parameters:

- alcohol level at 20° C (68° F)

- residual sugar in g/l

- total acidity in g/l, expressed as tartaric acid or sulphuric acid

- total sulphur dioxide

- free sulphur dioxide

- volatile acidity per mil

- pressure, in the event of spumante wines

The certificate of analysis must indicate the name of the winery and of the wine, along with all information needed to identify the sample. The Event Committee reserves the right to carry out its own analysis to compare with/verify the analysis provided.

g) For DOC wines, a certificate of eligibility issued by the competent authority is required.

Along with all the items above, the winery should send a personal data treatment and consent form, as per Italian Legislative Decree 196/2003, duly stamped and signed by the company legal representative. A single form will be sufficient even if several samples are sent. Please send the documents together with the wine samples, inside the package.

The cost of transportation, shipment and customs processing to get the wine to the event organizers, and all transportation risks are the responsibility of the wine producer shipping the product.  Any costs are to be paid by the shipper prior to the wines arriving at the event site. Any samples arriving at a port in Italy without proper paperwork and expenses due will be refused and not returned to the shipper.

Wine sent by wineries that do not follow the shipping and transportation rules indicated above will be disqualified and excluded from the competition. If wines are disqualified, the wine producer will not have the right to recover the entry fee.

Before the actual wine judging, the Event Committee will ensure the anonymity of each sample by assigning two codes to each sample:

The Competition Advisor will monitor the various administrative tasks carried out during the competition. If the Competition Advisor considers it necessary, he or she will ask colleagues to collaborate in supervision. The Competition Advisor will ensure that all operational and regulatory requirements are met and ensure the preservation of the wine samples from the moment the samples are made anonymous and ready for judging until the time the judges have made their final evaluation of each group of wines. It will be the Competition Advisor who will provide the final results of the judges to the Event Committee.

- 3 wine-tasters, holding a qualification as a wine technician or oenologist, or other equivalent qualification obtained outside of Italy, possibly representing an associate region of the CERVIM,

- 1 expert wine taster from Italy or another country

- 1 Italian or international wine journalist

Judging will be according to the assessment form developed by the International Union of Oenologists and used during international wine competitions. The evaluation form uses a -scale of 100 points.

The tasting committees are made up of 5 members, and one of the wine-tasters will act as table-president, who will carry out a preliminary check that the forms are correctly filled in, as well as regulating the order of the tasting sessions.

If any wine judge is not able to carry out his or her duties during a tasting session, they may be replaced by wine technicians and/or Italian journalists, excluding anyone who has directly or indirectly contributed to organization of the competition.

The judges’ verdict is final. For confidentiality purposes, only a list of wines awarded prizes will be made public and not a list of all the wineries taking part in the competition or the score assigned to the single samples.

Until 31st December 2011, CERVIM will provide wine producers with a copy of the jury’s evaluation of their wine(s) taking part in the competition, on request.

Each wine in the competition will be evaluated by a committee.

Selected wines will be awarded respectively:

As provided for by the rule of the OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine), the whole of the attributed awards must not be superior to the 30% of the number of the samples enrolled to the Wine competition.

The final score of each sample is established by the arithmetic mean of the single numerical judgements, after having eliminated the most elevated evaluation and that lower.

The CERVIM 2011 Special Prize will be awarded to the winery in each country that has the top score, that is the total of the highest scores of three wines from three different categories that all have a score of at least 80 out of 100.

CERVIM will supply the international press with a list of the competition winners. The award winning wines will also feature in a special promotional campaign by the CERVIM. In order to promote mountain wines or wines produced in difficult orographical conditions, as well as the Competition itself, the organizers reserve the right to present wines awarded medals or special prizes at events, fairs, press conferences and institutional ceremonies.

Wine producers receiving one of the awards as specified in Articles 9 and 10 and wishing to mention this in the course of their business, should comply with the general rules in force in each country, according to the guidelines issued by the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV).

Any prize not claimed during the award ceremony will be sent to the wine producer by the CERVIM, which does, however, decline any responsibility for non-delivery or loss of awards.

In the event of any disagreement between organizers and competition entrants, arbitration authority will be given to the Judicial Court in the city of Aosta, Italy.