On June 6, the Orange County Wine Society hosted our 50th annual Home Wine Competition in the Courtyard and Huntington Beach building. I am happy and proud to say that it went off in a wonderfully successful manner, thanks to all our 80 stewards and support staff, 10 members from our Cook’s Caucus and 78 judges from across California, and as far away as Memphis Tennessee, and Puerto Rico!
Together, we evaluated 601 wines from 177 winemakers from across California, with the largest category red blends having 65 wines and Cabernet Sauvignon with 58 wines. We are happy to award 119 Double Gold Medals, 90 Gold Medals, 239 Silver Medals and 111 Bronze Medals.
I am hearing over and over from our judges, complimenting that the wines “just keep getting better and better every year.” Best of Show awards went to Red Wine: Tom Bender (2024 Petite Sirah, White Wine), White Wine: Emiko Miyamoto (2025 Viognier, Rosé Wine), Rose Wine: Scott Carpenter (2025 Barbera Rosé), Fruit Wine: Ed Wall (2025 Dessert style Pomegranate), and Dessert Wine: Michael Ray Brown (2024 Late Harvest Concord Wine).
Our Label Competition had 78 entries this year and Best of Show went to Jack Graham for his label on his 2025 Grenache Blush wine. We handed out 36 Gold Awards, 23 Silver Awards and 18 Bronze Awards for their beautiful wine labels.
You can view your Wine and Label results at HomeWineCompetition.com.
As for the operation of the Home Wine Competition, comments have been overwhelmingly positive, including:
I was judging today at the amateur competition and I was struck by how well organized the whole event was. From preparatory seminars and timely emails to the food offerings and the wine pouring and glassware cleaning and the score checking, all the amazing volunteers – everyone knew exactly what to do! This is probably the best organized wine comp I have attended. — Alan Atkinson
Thank you Alan!
Our amazing bragging rights are that we send out emails and post our scores on our website for all the winemakers in LESS THAN 24 HOURS after the end of judging, and our scoresheets and medals will be going out WITHIN TWO WEEKS! (The three other large Home Wine Competitions serving our winemakers all take over 30 days!!! to get their results out, and longer to mail the medals). Congratulations to Stacey Taylor and Carolyn Christian for getting the scores out quickly and Lynda Edwards and John Kienstra for getting the scoresheets and medals out quickly.
Special kudos go to my HWC Committee: John Lane (Head of Judges), Ed Reyes and Cheryl Knapp (Head of Volunteers), Stacey Taylor (Database Manager), Wendy Taylor (Label Head Judge), Carolyn Christian (Marketing), Lynda Edwards and John Kienstra (Awards and Scoresheet Mailing), Teri Lane and Stephanie D’Jang (Scoring), Kim Guerin (BOS Head Steward), Jerry Guerin (Instructor for Judges’ Seminar), Fran Gitsham (OC Fair Liaison), and Lynda Edwards, Craig and Lisa Peterson (Cook’s Caucus). And special thanks go out to the OC Fair and Event Center for the FANTASTIC 50 YEARS OF SUPPORT of both of our competitions and being great partners with our organization.
I have been the Chair of this Competition for the past 13 years, and I send a sincere THANK YOU to all of our volunteers who contribute to make the OC Fair’s Home Wine Competition an AMAZING SUCCESS year after year after year!
—Kevin Donnelly, Chair, OC Fair Home Wine Competition