Calling all Home Winemakers!

Winemakers to showcase wines at Benton County Fair

 

(Vinton, IA) – Organizers of the Eastern Iowa Amateur Wine Competition are looking for amateur winemakers to submit their wines to the 3rd annual competition held at the Benton County Fair.

“This competition is the second largest amateur wine competition in the state of Iowa”, says Martin Blind, Eastern Iowa Wine Club President. Last year more than 114 wines were judged by skilled professionals.  The 2010 competition is reorganized to showcase the best wines by using a ‘Flight’ approach with judges tasting all wines at one time in a given category.  This judging process, instead of picking only one white, red and blue ribbon winner for each category, now the judges have the freedom to acknowledge wines with Bronze, Silver, and Gold – with no set minimum number of awards.

“We were impressed with the quality and quantity of wines received last year, a testimony to the skill and passion of Iowa home winemakers,” said Brad Johnson, EIWC Secretary. The best wines judged as extraordinary will be awarded a Gold Medal. All wines receiving a Gold Medal will be eligible for Best of Show recognition. Another returning feature to this years’ competition includes the Marechal Foch Award, a specially designed trophy to honor and elevate this locally grown red wine grape.

Following judging, visitors (of legal drinking age) will be allowed to taste the wines and judge for themselves and vote for their favorite to determine the People’s Choice Award.

The Eastern Iowa Amateur Wine Competition is open to any amateur winemaker and is free to enter.  “We encourage all home winemakers to enter their favorite wines into our competition.” said Martin Blind, EIWC President.

Deadline to enter your homemade wines into the 3nd Annual Eastern Iowa Amateur Wine Competition is Wednesday, July 21nd (received at Benton County Fairgrounds between 2-8pm). Contact Martin Blind at (319-551-2075) or visit the Eastern Iowa Wine Club at www.iowawineclub.org for additional information.

READER COMMENTS:

It's great to hear about a "Marechal Foch Award". In every region, the grapes that actually grow best should receive such official recognition. Foch is a grape that's largely underappreciated by the wine industry- though you can see that grassroots winemakers know its value.