46th Annual US Amateur Winemaking Competition

[acorad]

Hello folks!

The 46th Annual US Amateur Winemaking Competition

will be held on

November 16, 2019

Entries must be received between October 1 and November 10, 2019.

International entries may be received earlier.

Please send entries c/o: The Home Beer, Wine and Cheesemaking Shop, in Woodland Hills, CA.
(www.HomeBeerWineCheese.com)

Entry forms and rules are posted on the Cellarmasters of Los Angeles website:
http://www.CellarmastersLA.org.

Cellarmasters of LA has been sponsoring the US Amateur Winemaking Competition
since the club was founded in 1973.

As always, the US Amateur is an all-volunteer endeavor and
the oldest home wine competition in the United States.

Good luck to all!

Questions?

Please email: [email protected]

Andy Coradeschi​

 

[joeswine]

Ill try this one again last year I took a BEST OF SHOW...with my Coffee port....this year I'm sending my Carmel toffee Port.. and Sanginovese.. well see how it finishes. I also have a 2007 peach desert wine now ready ..

 

[Boatboy24]

Is it my bad memory, or have the entry fees gone up significantly this year?

 

[mainshipfred]

I think I paid $25.00 ea for my Minemaker Magazine entries.

 

[Boatboy24]

I think I paid $25.00 ea for my Minemaker Magazine entries.

Yep, that's their going rate. But I thought this comp has been $10 in the past. Then again, the memory ain't what it used to be...

 

[joeswine]

It cost a good penny to ship it there, cost me $30 last year. Hay you only go around once.

 

[acorad]

Hi Joe, great job last year! And we are looking forward to your entries again this year!

Hi Jim, iirc it was $5 less last year? However, unfortunately, the Competition didn't even come close to breaking even last year, and some of the fixed costs are more expensive this year, etc. We all volunteer our time and only hope to break even, but some costs are unavoidable.

 

[mainshipfred]

@acorad I assume you are involved somehow in the competition. I relatively new and my last year vintages are the oldest I have but I have a Meritage blend and a Cab Franc that are drinking really nice right now. Do the judges take young vintages into consideration or should I wait until next year to enter them.

 

[acorad]

Fred, if they taste good now I'd enter them now. Not only do you get the winemaking feedback one year earlier, so you can use it one vintage sooner, but also waiting a year just gives another year for something to go wrong with your wine (cooling system breaks down, oxidation issues, etc, etc.)

The judges do recognize young vs aged wines and judge and give feedback accordingly.

I always enter my previous year's wines, because my wines from two years ago have always been drunk!

Andy

 

[acorad]

Hi all,

Online payments are now live! http://cellarmastersla.org/

Good luck!

Andy

 

[ibglowin]

Well you do live in New Jersey and you are shipping to the the opposite West Coast some 2800 miles or so.......

It cost a good penny to ship it there, cost me $30 last year. Hey you only go around once.

 

[acorad]

Hi all, just 11 days left to get your entries in!

Good luck!

Andy

 

[iridium]

So stupid question. How do you ship the wine to enter? UPS, FedEx and USPS won't ship wine...

 

[ibglowin]

USPS won't ship wine but UPS and FedEx do it all day every day. You need to have your wine distributors license to be legal.

But it it perfectly legal to ship "steak marinade". So many of us here ship "steak marinade" via UPS and FedEx all the time without any issue.

 

[acorad]

ibglowin has it right. People also ship fruit juice samples, and some creative home winemakers ship "bovine urine samples"...

Andy

 

[JoP]

ibglowin has it right. People also ship fruit juice samples, and some creative home winemakers ship "bovine urine samples"...

Andy

I like the "steak marinade", but you can also call it "grape juice".
It worked for me in the past.

 

[Amanda660]

I use FedEx and schedule a pick-up. We do a small amateur winemaking competition with our fair and charge $10 an entry but we only have medal and shipping costs so we almost break even. If we didn't get everything from food to event space donated there is no way we could stay at $10.

 

[ibglowin]

The main thing you want to do is let them know sorta what is in the box if a bottle breaks and begins to leak. I always use a wine shipper box since I order quite a bit of wine direct from wineries. Many people don't have access to wine shippers and just use a box that the wine fits into and wrap the bottles with bubble wrap or similar. Sometimes boxes get dropped and bottles have been known to break. At that point they (UPS, FedEx) are going to look up what was declared to be in the box and do they need some sort of Hazmat response to deal with this package.

 

[acorad]

5 days to the entry deadline, do not delay!

Best,

Andy