# U.s. Amateur winemaking



## asterof (Jun 26, 2014)

is it worth a try to even enter this ?
40th Annual U.S. Amateur Winemaking Competition


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## JohnT (Jun 26, 2014)

Absolutely!!!! 

Entering competitions, even if you do not medal, is a great source of impartial feedback on your wine. 

I say go for it! Gotta be in it to win it.


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## BernardSmith (Jun 26, 2014)

Are all competitions equally good at giving useful (for the winemaker) rather than subjective (more about the judge) feedback?


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## grapeman (Jun 26, 2014)

BernardSmith said:


> Are all competitions equally good at giving useful (for the winemaker) rather than subjective (more about the judge) feedback?


 
NO, not in my opinion.....................


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## Runningwolf (Jun 26, 2014)

I agree with Rich. When judging hundreds or thousands of bottles of wine you are moving right along and not enough time to write many notes if any.


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## JohnT (Jun 27, 2014)

I think it really depends on the competition itself. 

IMHO, there are competitions that I consider "professional" in their approach, and there are competitions that I find are just a joke. 

I personally like Indy, AWS, and Winemaker mag competitions. I find that the feedback these competitions provide are about as objective as it can get. I have gleaned a lot of info from them.

I try to stay away from things like State Fairs. They are more geared for country style wines and very rarely have (what I consider) a qualified panel of judges. The last one that I entered, I actually attended the judging and was shocked and pissed at the level of unprofessionalism... 

- They set the wine entries out on a table in full sun for several hours before the judging. This was in August and the wine was beyond warm by the time it was tasted.

- The judges were made up local businessmen. I spoke to one of them and asked him what made him such a fan of wine. "I really am more of a scotch drinker" was his response.

- The judges did not taste the wine, they drank the wine. Midway into the judging, they were obviously drunk.


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## franki1926 (Oct 29, 2014)

Anyone enter this one? It's going on right now. I entered two bottles


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## franki1926 (Nov 1, 2014)

did anyone attend ? how was it?


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## seth8530 (Nov 2, 2014)

As mentioned above, it really depends on the competition. I did not really like the Winemaker magazine comp because they did not really give me good notes. But, for my meads I enter them into the Mazers cup and they give very good notes.. ( I might be partial to this competiotin since I did good at this one and not so good at winemaker magazine). But in all honesty, I did not think the notes I got from winemaker magazine were very informative.


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## asterof (Nov 2, 2014)

Yea I entered one Merlot, 

"Judging will be conducted on November 22, 2014 and the award winners will be posted on the Cellarmasters web site (http://www.cellarmastersLA.org) promptly. Awards and/or judging score sheets will be mailed in approximately eight weeks."


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## franki1926 (Nov 2, 2014)

sorry I was thinking of the AWS national that was held this weekend. I am looking forward to finding out the results, so far noting posted.


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