Castel’s 2017 Chardonnay Prestige wins silver medal in Lyon

Castel Winery’s 2017 Chardonnay Prestige won a silver medal at the 2018 edition of the Lyon International Competition. This year, the world renowned event had 6,860 samples from 39 countries, tasted and awarded medals including Castel’s 2017 Chardonnay.
International tasters from all sectors including oenologists, sommeliers, restaurateurs, producers, wine shop owners, as well as knowledgeable consumers, have made this competition an important event.
The Lyon International Competition is a ‘viticultural’ competition; viticulture is the science, production, and study of grapes. It deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard.
The ‘viticultural’ competitions are currently very popular in Europe because they allow the consumer to make their choice more quickly thanks to the medal on the bottles. Lyon, the city dubbed the ‘capital of taste’ has held this competition for many years.
“This 2018 edition was chaired by Japanese star chef Tsuyoshi Arai. We received the results and it happens that the 2017 Chardonnay Prestige has been awarded the silver medal. It is an honour for Ethiopia, for Castel Winery. Still aware of the improvements we can make we now have the certainty that there is significant wine quality potential in Ethiopia,” Castel Winery said in a statement.
Castel Winery currently produces 1.4 million bottles on 170 hectares of land, although it has the capacity to produce on 400 hectares of land. With 700 employees, Castel has been able to successfully introduce Ethiopia as a wine producing country.
The winery is located in the town of Ziway. It is a lake town with an elevation of around 1600 meters above sea level, with a sub-humid to sub- arid climate, a Sandy Loam type of soil variety, mean annual precipitation of 650 to 700 mm and its all year average temperature of 25 degrees centigrade is deemed suitable for the grape varieties imported directly from France.