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Last November, we had the pleasure of hosting a white/country wine competition. It was a humbling and eye opening experience.

This year, there is talk of having another big and bold red competition.

I would like to set a date of Saturday, December 2, 2017.

One change I will make is that, for each entry, you now only need to send 1 "split" or a 375ml bottle. This will save on freight costs while still providing enough of a sample for judging.

I have also decided to "raised the bar" by requiring a minimum score of 13 (and not 12) for medalists.

Thiscompetitionis open to, and will award medals for, any dry red wine scoring enough points on the UC Davis scale. Awarded medals will be mailed back to the participants along with the original scoring sheets.

Only medal winners will be announced publicly.

The date for the competition is Saturday, 12/2/2017. You can send your entries as soon as you want and they will be properly cellared (to give the wine a chance to get over "bottle shock"). I would ask that you let me know and expected delivery dates.

Here is the list of rules.....

1) Contest is open to dry red grape wines only.

2) Contest is open to all winemaking methods (wines made from kits, pail juice, or fresh fruit, Etc) and will be judged together (no separate categories based on how the wine was made).

3) UC Davis scoring method will be used. The following link is the scoring sheet that will be used.

http://www.musingsonthevine.com/MusingsUCDavisForm.pdf

4) Medals will be awarded and mailed out to the entrants based on the following point scale.

18-20 Gold
16-17 Silver
13-15 Bronze

Note: Awards will be made based on a wine's own merits. As a result, there can be multiple gold, silver, and bronze medals awarded in any given category.

5) The exact categories within the competition will depend on the number of entries received. If we receive, say, 3 entries of Cabernet, then we will have Cabernet as its own varietal category. A category of "Other" will be used otherwise.

6) Entries need to be only one 375 ml bottle. Entries of 750ml will also be excepted.

7) For each entry, please have each bottle clearly marked with the grape varietal used, proportions, or style of wine, vintage year, and winemaking talk.com name.

8) Judges will not compete.

9) We are now currently accepting entries. Entries will be properly cellared until the date of judging.


If interested, please let me know by responding to this post and I will PM you the address information.

Entries need to be delivered and received no later than 12/01/2017.
 
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Good decision on accepting splits, makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons.
 
Okay so we've kickoff the big red competition let's here from all of you.
 
I don't see likes in the ap.


I also mainly use the app but feel guilty not able to "like" posts easily. Hoping the app is updated with that feature at some point.

What's the youngest that a wine would typically be entered? Doesn't UC Davis scoring account for younger wines "youngness" and not deduct? But I suppose a wine would be better to enter at 1 yr 7 months than 7 months. But curious nonetheless.
 
Much like a good woman you don't need to know a good wines age.


Lol. Craig you are just one smooth operator!
I read up on UC Davis guidelines and it says "young wines will not be discounted for a natural tannin". I've never done anything like this before but I didnt fully understand how that could work.
If all goes as planned I'd love to send over my Chilean Cab/merlot grapes & juice yet to be blended. It was a very involved ferment and I'm quite proud of it so far. I'm hesitant to enter any of my kits since I didn't do many tweaks and just aged and oaked. But who knows.
It'd be a great way to see where I stand as well as a badge of honor if scored well. And a perfect excuse to pick up a case of 375ml bottles to have around.
 
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Glad to see that there is interest. If any of you need the shipping address (the same as the great white/fruit competition), please PM me.
 

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