West Coast/East Meets West Wine Competition?

Did anyone else enter this?

I know there are so many competitions now.

How do you all decide to participate or not?

PS. Results are up on Enofile if you search. I am not sure if they are published yet otherwise.

West Coast of Cali vs East Coast of Cali or…?

No, it is an international competition which is trying to get the best wines from other states to compete. It is sponsored by Vineyard and Winery Management, which is pretty legit. They include the appellation in the judging, which I like. I think there were almost 1500 entries, so it has gotten some response.

I think there are way too many competitions. I stick with Sonoma Harvest Fair as at least it is apples to apples and I can have fun with my local ITBs. That and the SF Chronicle one but for the most part I avoid them and concentrate on catering to the locals as they make up 70% of my customer base. I know that is a bit harder for you so I’d say the Chron one would be best as I’ve been noticing a strong localization of palates develop. Particularly in SOCAL.

The idea of appellation in judging sounds good and I’ve been invited to see the judging for the North Coast Competition, so I plan on asking about this idea. I feel palates just get skewed through the day of tasting and I wonder if it is really practical to say that there would be no influence from the other far reaching appellations being tasted.

I agree. Too many competitions. This was the first time I did the West Coast/East Meets West. A winemaker friend was a judge this year, and he encouraged me to participate. I sent in a couple of wines and got a gold for our 2012 Humboldt Noir d’Orleans and a silver for our 2013 Humboldt Zin, both from Ishi Pishi Ranch. I am pleased with the result, particularly since both of these wines are not typical CA style wines for the category.

From talking to my friend about how the judging worked for this event, he seems to think that the fact that there are a wide range of wines from different places seems to push the judges to be more open minded about different styles and flavor profiles. If that is true, it is a good thing from my POV.

In the past, my folks had always done Orange County (big event, no fee to enter) and CA State Fair (sounds good when you will gold) and our whites and sparkling had always done well in them. I don’t think our reds fit the profile they were looking for, at least that is our excuse. newhere

It is interesting to hear how others do in the competitions and get reviews of each of the competitions from ITB folks as well as what, if anything, everyone else thinks about any of the different events.

Do you think it is worthwhile to start a general competitions discussion thread?

I don’t see averaging scores across multiple palates as a way for wines with any distinctive features to come out ahead. The thing that sets your wine apart is bound to not be somebody on the panel’s cup of tea – even if it stands a good chance of knocking out an individual reviewer. I used to look at the previous year’s winners when I got solicitations to enter big competitions, and too often competent/nondescript had carried the day.

Stewart, I generally agree. In part at least. There is a trend in competition judging to not use scores and to vote for medals and discuss. I am not certain this is better, but I have to admit that a couple of my wines that are pretty far from the accepted norm for their category have done well recently. I think it depends on the judges, they way the judging is being done and the context in which the wines are judged.

What pushes me over the edge to making it worthwhile to compete is the PR that I get locally for earning medals. In the end it is cheaper and more effective than advertising.