Winemaking: Why Compete?

“Cellar palate” is what develops when drinking only one wine for a length of time. With cellar palate, taste buds dull, and it is difficult to taste wine faults causing a loss of perspective on whether a wine is good.  When asking friends, they may not be objective, and a loss of objectivity could cause you to lose forward momentum in developing good winemaking skills.

To get an objective opinion, I like to enter my wines in competitions. The judges write
“tasting notes” and send them to you, which are very helpful to amateur winemakers.  With any luck there may be a medal, too. The downside of this is that, depending on which competition is entered, you may have to send more than one bottle per entry. I used to like the INDY International Wine Competition best because it is run by Purdue University and is an international competition, so my expectation was that the tasting notes were very good, and reliable. However, the last time I entered this competition was 2017 and the tasting notes looked rushed. There was not much useful detail.    

This year, I have sent a few different varietals and vintages off to the WineMaker Magazine International Amateur Wine Competition as they only require one bottle per entry.  With the current COVID-19 virus, most competitions are stalled for a few months.  So, five bottles of my wine are waiting for the judging to commence in August.  It is a long time to wait, and I am hopeful that the tasting notes are good. 

Next year, I will be entering my wines from the fall of 2019.  This will be a big year for me because these are the wines I crushed at my house. Depending on the notes from the WineMaker Magazine Competition this year, I will make the determination of which contest to enter next year.  Why not enter both?  That would be 3 bottles of wine per entry … that’s too much wine to give away!  In any case, this is something you may want to consider in the months ahead.  There is a small cost and a big benefit.