Four years after hosting the Red and White Wines Session by CMB, Calabria is preparing to welcome the Rosé Wines Session by CMB 2026. The competition will take place in the town of Cirò from March 27 to 29.
On this occasion, more than 55 international tasters from 20 countries will gather to blindly evaluate over 1,100 rosé wines from 30 countries. As every year, the Rosé Wines Session will be a key moment to highlight trends and the diversity of global rosé production.
Beyond the competition itself, this edition will also offer jurors an immersive experience in the heart of the Calabrian vineyard, through tastings, conferences, visits and meetings with local wine stakeholders. It will be a unique opportunity to discover the richness and dynamism of this wine region in southern Italy.
The results will be announced on April 9 at www.concoursmondial.com.
The benchmark among international competitions?
The thirty or so countries competing are still dominated by the major rosé-producing nations: France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. As last year, Romania also features in the top five, confirming that it is a country to watch closely on the international wine scene.
This year, new countries are presenting their wines at the competition, notably Israel and Tunisia, while others, such as Brazil and Turkey, are increasing the number of samples submitted.
This diversity further confirms the CMB’s status as an international benchmark in the sector. On the Italian side, the host country of this Rosé Wines Session, the number of wines entered is also rising. It is particularly interesting to note that Calabria has tripled the number of samples submitted, reflecting the strong commitment of local producers.
Rosé in Calabria
While Calabria has historically been known for its red wines, the region is also developing an increasingly high-quality rosé production, often made from its emblematic grape variety, Gaglioppo.
The Cirò area, located on the Ionian coast, benefits from ideal conditions for producing elegant and expressive rosés, thanks to its Mediterranean freshness and proximity to the sea. Hosting the CMB Rosé Wines Session therefore represents the perfect opportunity to showcase its rosé wines on the international stage.
An influential jury
An influential jury
As with every CMB Session, the selection of wines will be entrusted to an international jury composed of some of the most influential tasters in the sector: specialised journalists, buyers, sommeliers, consultants and wine experts from around the world.
The diversity of profiles and nationalities guarantees a rigorous, independent tasting that reflects global markets. Thanks to this collective expertise, CMB medal-winning wines benefit every year from strong recognition among professionals and consumers alike.
A year of innovation for the CMB in 2026
The Rosé Wines Session, which opens the CMB competition season, provides the perfect opportunity to present the many innovations developed for producers, distributors and wine professionals, as explained by Quentin Havaux, CEO of the CMB:
“This 2026 edition of the Rosé Wines Session by CMB, organised in Calabria, is particularly significant. […]
This year, we notably want to go further in enhancing the value of the data collected during tastings. Thanks to the expertise of our international tasters, we gather valuable information that we transform into concrete marketing tools: sensory sheets, aroma wheels and tasting comments. These tools will be shared with distributors — large retailers, wine merchants and the HoReCa sector — with the aim of making wines easier for end consumers to understand.
It is in this spirit that we launched CMB MERIT. This is not a medal. It is a recognition designed to highlight high-quality wines that did not reach the global top 33% required to obtain a medal, but which nevertheless deserve the market’s attention. CMB MERIT wines will therefore benefit from the marketing tools developed by the CMB, while maintaining a distinction clearly different from a medal.
In the same spirit of creating additional value for producers, another initiative has been launched: CMB Experience Certified. This certification highlights wine bars and restaurants that offer at least five CMB medal-winning wines on their wine list, allowing consumers to discover these award-winning wines. The first certified establishments are Line de Hannam Rooftop Bar in South Korea and Microbodega Urbana in Valladolid, Spain.”
