Home Wine Competition Entry Tips

Winemakers, the entry deadline for the 50th annual OC Fair Home Wine Competition is May 22. New this year is a Best of Show Rose award to go with Best of Show awards for red, white, fruit and dessert wines. If you plan to submit wines, here are some things you can do to give them their best chance to show well.
Make sure you’re using sound winemaking practices. This means tasting regularly, topping off carboys or barrels and maintaining SO2 to prevent oxidation and spoilage. Oxidized wine is a common fault and it can happen to any wine. I’ve tasted commercial wines that suffered from oxidation, right out of the bottle.
If you haven’t bottled the wine yet, you’ll need to do it soon. Taste your wine before bottling to make sure there’s nothing wrong with it. Notice I said taste, not drink. As tempting as it is, don’t drink during bottling. It’s too easy to make a mistake or forget a critical step with a foggy mind. I celebrate with a cold beer after bottling.
When it comes to bottling, make sure that’s the only thing you’re doing on bottling day. Make any chemical additions or adjustments at least a week prior to bottling. This will allow enough time for those changes to integrate into the wine. If you’re making a blend, your blending components and their percentages should already be determined. You don’t want to be figuring out your blend at the last minute.
Resist the urge to submit anything that has just been bottled. Bottle shock is a real phenomenon. I’ve found my red wines need at least 30 to 45 days to recover after bottling.
Don’t skimp on packaging if you’re shipping your wine to the competition. You want your wine to get here safely after all your effort. You can also deliver submissions to the OCWS office, Monday through Friday during regular business hours. Competition wines are stored in a temperature-controlled environment after they’re received so you don’t have to worry about exposure to extreme temperatures.
If you’re entering the label competition, send an original label. It shows much better than a photocopy. Make sure the label is entered into its correct category. Sometimes labels have characteristics that might make it a worthy contender in more than one category, say both humorous and viticultural. In this case I recommend entering it into the category where it makes the better impression.
Finally, make sure you complete the entry form clearly and thoughtfully. Enter your wines into their correct categories. If you’re entering a specific varietal wine, say Zinfandel, make sure there is at least 75% of that varietal in the wine. Rose wines should be entered as such so they’re not judged against their red counterparts. Specify the grape’s AVA, if applicable, and vintage in the entry form “description” section.
If you’re entering a blend, be sure to specify the percentages of each blend component in the “description” section as well. Fruit wines should be entered into their appropriate category. Note the wine’s sweetness level and enter that into the appropriate category. All that information will be on the judges’ score sheets for their consideration.
I know a lot of this isn’t rocket science. But by putting care into your wine and thoughtfulness into the entry process beforehand, you can help them to show their best on competition day.
—Ed Reyes,
ed@OCWS.org

The OC Fair Home Wine Competition is Saturday, June 6 at the OC Fair and Event Center. To learn more about serving as a judge for the competition, contact John Lane at John@OCWS.org.