Croatian winemakers won 254 medals at the 18th edition of the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards, 28 more than last year, the Agriculture Ministry said in a press release on Wednesday.

In total, Croatian winemakers won 3 platinum awards, 8 golds, as many as 80 wines were decorated with silver and 163 with bronze.

Three Croatian wineries won the platinum medal and a total of 97 points – Benvenuti (Motovun), Zure (Korcula), and Bire (Korcula).

The DWWA is the world’s largest wine competition. This year, a record 18,094 wines from 56 countries applied for the competition. For 15 consecutive days in June, nearly 170 wine judges, including 44 wine masters and 11 sommelier masters, declared the 50 best wines and awarded 179 platinum, 635 gold, 5,607 silver, and 8,332 bronze medals, the ministry said.