Topic: Competitions

Your friends and family think your homemade wines are the best, but are they right? The best way to find out is to enter your wine in a competition. Wine competitions can also be a good way to gain feedback on wines that you may think are flawed, but you’re not sure what went wrong. In this issue, three wine judges share their advice for avoiding common mistakes when entering competitions.

During the day, I am a drywaller and I own my own business, but in my own time I have been making homemade wines for 20 years. I started out making Concord

From April 20–22, 2007, a record total of 3,422 different wines were judged at the Equinox Resort in Manchester, Vermont. The 2007 edition of the WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition represented the

You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.” –Marian Wright Edelman I’ve always liked Marian’s sentiment. There’s nothing that says you have

Out of the 2,247 wines entered in the 2005 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition, six still wines topped the charts in the best of show categories of red, white, dessert, fruit, kit

1,499 entries 287 wine flights 221 total judging hours 41 American states 8 Canadian provinces 4 countries Walking into a large ballroom packed with 1,499 wine bottles organized into 287 wine flights

Winners from the 2002 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition

Why bother with wine competitions? It’s a fair question. Entering a competition means putting your wine up for evaluation against those of other winemakers, and that can be a bit daunting. Some

Most winemakers begin by wanting to make an affordable wine through their own efforts. Once they succeed, they focus more on perfecting the finished product. Their next question becomes, “Am I making