The Orange County Fair home wine competition is open for entries. Entries and wines must be received by May 22nd.
The Orange County Wine Society (OCWS), in conjunction with the OC fair, has sponsored the Home Wine Competition since 1976. This competition is open to all amateur home winemakers in California. It is one of the largest amateur home wine competitions in the USA. The judging is double blind and the scoring is based on a modified UC Davis 20 point scale. To ensure continuity in the valuation and scoring of the wines, they hold judging workshops prior to each year’s competition.
The winemakers who enter the competition do so not just for the bragging rights of the awards but also to get feedback from the judges. If a judge marks a wine lower for a characteristic that can be corrected, the winemaker can then make an adjustment to his/her future wines prior to finishing and bottling. That is probably the most valuable feedback for the competition entrants.
Wines will be judged June 6th. Four Best of Show awards (for Red, White, Fruit and Dessert Wines) are announced the day of the competition with the remaining awards posted the next day. The medals will be mailed about 4-6 weeks later.
Labels are also judged during this competition. Awards are presented for Best of Show along with Gold, Silver, and Bronze in each label category.
The OCWS Winemakers group provides the management for the competition. This continues to be the largest annual activity for the Winemakers group.
For more information click this link.
Please email any questions to HomeWineCompetition@ocws.org
| Once again Mike Ferree has offered to deliver your wine to Orange County for the OCWS Home Wine Competition. Enter will open in March. Mike’s delivery will be made Saturday April 18, so he will need all entries by April 17. Your wine will need to be packaged and labeled with entry information. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Mike at mchferr4@aol.com or 805-975-6503 |
