2017 Wine Competition Entries Due March 27
For Complete Rules & Entry Info, CLICK HERE
It is our pleasure to invite you to participate in the 2017 San Joaquin Valley Wine Competition, taking place March 31st in Kingsburg, California. This will be our 13th annual competition! With continual yearly improvement, we enthusiastically know that this will be our best competition yet!
To this end, wineries will be competing to be “Winery of the Year.” The Winery of the Year will be chosen based upon total points won at the competition: 7 for a Gold Medal, 5 for a Silver and 3 for a Bronze. We are excited to add this new dimension to our event as our winery entrants have been lobbying for this over the last several years.
We are pleased to announce that noted Winemaker & Educator Matt Brain has joined our Competition steering committee to ensure the continuing success of the event. Dr. Fred Nury, Professor Emeritus of Enology and Published Author, Michael Blaylock, Winemaker for Quady Winery in Madera, Stillman Brown, Winemaker for Red Zepplin Wines in Cayucos and Mike Stepanovich, Wine Educator and Journalist have pledged to anchor our competition expert judging panel. All of us involved are dedicated to making the competition bigger and better this year, and we strongly encourage you to enter as many wines as possible for a number of reasons. Consumers look to the results of our competition as a guide to their wine purchases. Our competition is unique in that we utilize an expert panel of judges, but we also provide feedback to wineries from consumer panels representing fast-growing groups in the wine consumer market. Local media provides coverage of the competition and we hold two public wine tasting events just after the competition.
Our April 1st Tasting is open to the general public and all wineries who enter are cordially invited to pour and sell their wines. Further, a tasting in Visalia will showcase the medal winners to select wine buyers from the Tulare County region. The competition this year will take place in a facility specially chosen to accommodate a professional competition. Special attention will be paid to glassware, proper serving temperature and scoring method. The expert panel of judges will be from all facets of the wine industry. These include esteemed winemakers, sommeliers, and wine educators. If you have any questions regarding the San Joaquin Valley Wine Competition, please feel free to contact Pamela Akin, Competition Coordinator, by email (pam@idrinkwine.net) or by phone at 559-272-1411. We would be pleased and honored to accept your entries into the 2017 San Joaquin Valley Wine Competition! Deadline for entry is March 27th.
-Matt Brain, Marty Spate & Glenn Grabi Co-ChairmenCLICK HERE
For Complete Rules & Entry Info, CLICK HERE
2017 Judges – Partial List
Randy Caparoso – The Somm Journal
Mike Donich – The Wine Group
Jay Irvine – MarVista Resources
Leslie Larson – Sommelier
Greg MaGill – Wine Grape Concentrate Specialist
Elaine Marshall – Certified Wine Professional
Dennis Martine – FMLY Fetzer Winery
Stephen McConnell – Soifknows.com
Dr. Fred Nury – CSUF Emeritis
Darin Peterson – Quady Winery
Pooch Pulicowski – Head Judge, California State Fair
M. Carl Rana – Stefanelli Distributing
Mike Stepanovich – Enology Professor
Dawn Wells – Treasury Wines
David Wilson – Host, Grape Encounters