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SALES & MARKETING Best in Show Winery and contest insiders discuss merits and drawbacks of submitting wine for competition By Kate Lavin I t was 3:30 p.m. on the second day of judging for the 2013 California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition, and the hour-plus stalemate over best sparkling wine showed no signs of breaking. The field had been whittled down to two contenders—one the color of light straw and the other pale salmon—but the two panels of judges tasked with selecting Best of California had each chosen different winners. The four judges from each panel were among 72 professionals selected to sip and score 2,625 wines from 709 winery brands for the annual event held in Sacramento, Calif. The State Fair competition is one of the best known in the United States, which is home to more than 30 such contests, according to Wines Vines Analytics. Each competition has its own rules, and terms can vary greatly, with entry fees ranging from free (Orange County Fair Commercial Competition) to $95 (Ultimate Wine Challenge). According to numbers compiled by Wines & Vines, wineries spend nearly $3 million per year on the entry fees alone. Highlights • .S. wineries enter almost 44,000 U wines in competitions each year, spending nearly $3 million in entry fees. • ome winery managers view competiS tions as a good way to reach consumers in areas separated from wine tourism. • ther winery owners view competitions O as an either-or proposition: They'll either enter their wines or send them out for review. 98 W in e s & V i ne s january 20 14 A flight of wine is set up for judging at the Dallas Morning News Wine Competition. Likewise, competition organizers can require anywhere from two to six bottles per wine entered in the competition. Given the cost of entry and the multitude of contests, how do wineries decide whether they should enter? And if so, which contests are best suited to them? The winner's circle Len Wiltberger, owner of 9,000-case Keuka Spring Vineyards in Penn Yan, N.Y., said he enters several competitions per year as a way to have his wines benchmarked against others. This year Keuka Spring's 2011 Riesling was named the best white wine at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, and recently the winery's 2012 Riesling was chosen from a field of more than 800 entries to win the Governor's Cup trophy during the New York Wine & Food Classic. Contacted a few days after the Governor's Cup win, Wiltberger said customers had been flooding the tasting room since the announcement, and wine retailers had been calling to place orders. "We generally are fortunate and successful with these wine competitions, and it gives us stuff to work with for promotion and in terms of point-of-sale material in retail stores, so it's a good investment for us," Wiltberger said. The fee to enter the New York Wine & Food Classic is $60 per wine entered or $40 for limited-production wines (less than 100 cases produced per year). "The governor doesn't come up to this part of the state much (New York's Finger Lakes), so when we won this competition, every newspaper within 100 miles jumped on the story." In the days following the award, Wiltberger said traffic to the tasting room increased by about 50%. "They're buying it like crazy. They're walking out with cases of it right now," he told Wines & Vines. And while the press about the 2012 Riesling was driving traffic, Wiltberger said tasting room customers left carrying other varieties and vintages, as well. The regional angle For wineries located in the Napa Valley, which sees an estimated 3 million tourists per year, raising regional awareness is not N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo presents the Wiltbergers with the Governor's Cup award for their Keuka Springs Vineyards 2012 Riesling.