Whitecliff Vineyard & Winery Wins Winery of the Year

This year the Hudson Valley Wine, Spirits & Cider competition was held Saturday, September 10th, at the Hudson Valley Wine Festival located at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, New York. I’ve been Chair of this competition since 2008 and have seen the region come together and elevate the quality of craft beverages produced in the region. Each year is better than the last! The wines, spirits, and ciders entered in the competition are a reflection of the love, hard work, and dedication of the wineries, cideries, and spirit producers.

Entered in the 2022 competition were 78 entries of which 73 were wine, 3 ciders, and 2 spirits. All are judged by a panel of 15 judges based on the American Wine Society 20-point system. This year awarded were 4 Double Gold Medals, 16 Gold Medals, 18 Silver Medals, and 22 Bronze Medals.

For the first time, Whitecliff Vineyard and Winery dominated, winning Winery of the Year, Best in Show, and Best Red Wine for their 2020 Whitceliff Vineyard and Winery Cabernet Franc and Best Sparkling Wine for their 2016 North River Sparkling Wine.

Milea Estate Vineyard 2020 Cabernet Franc was awarded the Valerie Cup for the Best Overall Hudson Valley Wine made with Hudson Valley fruit.

Merchant’s Daughter Ciderworks won for the second year, Best Cider for their 2017 Clara Reserve.

For the second year in a row, Robibero Winery won best White Wine for their 2021 Sienna.

Best Rose Wine was awarded to Benmarl Winery’s 2021 Dry Rose, and a newcomer to the competition City Winery won Best Dessert Wine for their 2020 Vin de Glaciere Riesling.

In the Spirits category, newcomer Ten Mile Distillery won Best Spirit for their Listening Rock Gin.

For a list of all awards, click here

Congratulations to all the wineries, cideries, and distilleries!

2018 Hudson Valley Wine & Spirits Competition Results

It's been a busy month.  For the past three weeks I've been preparing for the 2018 Hudson Valley Wine & Spirits Competition. Although I am not counting I believe this year is my 11th year as the chairperson.  I have a wonderful panel of judges who I can't thank enough for giving up their Saturday morning to judge and a fantastic seasoned back room staff, who without them, the competition would not run as smoothly as it does.

Many of the judges have been with the competition since I took over. What has been said this year is how we have all seen the quality of the wines in the Hudson Valley grow and the pride the winemakers have in what they are producing.

This year we awarded 9 Double Gold Medals, 6 Gold Medals, 25 Silver Medals and 26 Bronze Medals.

Congratulations to all the wineries, distilleries and cideries.

2018 Hudson Valley Wine &am... by on Scribd

Results of the 2016 Hudson Valley Wine & Spirits Competition

Saturday September 10, The Hudson Valley Wine & Spirits Competition was held at the Hudson Valley Wine Festival in Rhinebeck, New York.

I run this competition every year and it warms my heart when I hear the judges talk and comment to me on how the quality of the wine produced in the area has grown. 

I am really excited because this year the competition results shows the younger generation of winemakers rising to the top. There was some outstanding wine judged and we had quite the taste off to decide the best of the best. 

I am so thankful for the wonderful judges and  killer back room staff I had ths year..  I am the luckiest wine goddess around to have such wonderful childhood friends who came and worked the back room this year.  It was the smoothest run competition yet. 

The judges who come from as far away as South Jersey to judge the competition and to witness the great quality of wine produced in the Hudson Valley.

This years judges were: Bob Brink, Fine Wines Manager, Arlington Wine & Liquor; Christopher Matthews, Wine & Spirits Columnist for New York Law Journal Magazine; Ned Towle, Director, Westchester Wine School; Tom Edwards, Fox & Hound Wines; Dr. Evan Goldfisher, George Drivas, Sage Restaurant & Lounge, Dana H Lee, Certified Specialist of Wine; Chris Gerling, Extension Associate for Enology for New York State; John Hudleson, Assistant Professor of Global Wine Studies at Central Washington University; Diane Letulle, Wine Dine Go; Lori Budd, Dracaena Wines; Paul Tonacci, Vinedrea Wines, Gary Pavlis,  County Agricultural & Resource Management, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Atlantic City and Frank Aquilino, American Wine Society President.

And the winners are:  drum roll please............

2016 Hudson Valley Wine & Spirits Competition Results

Inside the Hudson Valley Wine Competition

If you are a regular reader or follow me on Facebook or Twitter you know that I run the Hudson Valley Wine Competition.

This is a wine competition that is open to all Hudson Valley wineries to enter their wines made from New York fruit.  This year we had a record number of wines, ciders and spirits entered.  124 in total.

Preparing for this wine competition is no easy task.  I begin the beginning of August when I check on the entries to make sure the paperwork matches what is in the case.  Sometimes it doesn't, sometimes there are cases with no paperwork.

Then comes the task of organizing everything.  All entries get put into a spreadsheet that is grouped according to the type of wine entered. Next step is breaking the judges into panels.  For this competition we have 5 panels with three judges per panel.  

Now the hard part is breaking up the wine into flights.  Usually it's per varietal. Sometimes there are a few stragglers or you have to combine some wines to make a flight.  But in any event, the judges know the kind of grape, cider or spirit they are judging.

Once all the flights are decided it's my busy busy work time.  Labels have to be made and put on tuits.  Tuits are paper things that go around the bottom of the wine glass.  During the competition the tuit number must match the number on the wine bottle.  Out on the floor, the tuit number must match the with the corresponding number on the judges sheet.

Then about three days before the competition I spend about 5 hours locked in the store room at Whitecliff Vineyards & Winery all by myself to label the wine and to put the wine in cases by flight and panel. 

After bending and lifting all afternoon, I treated myself the next day to a pedicure so I could sit in the massage chair for an hour and let it work on my aching back!

The day before the competition I unload all the cases and arrange them according to panel in our back room.  Put the wines that need to be chilled in the fridge and set up the first two flights of glasses.

My wonderful back room staff pours the flights and delivers them to the judges, clears the table and brings out the next flight.

What do I do during the competition? Tabulate, tabulate, tabulate!

Hudson Valley News Network did a great piece on the wine festival that included my Hudson Valley Wine Competition.  Here is the clip of the wine competition piece.  If you want to watch all 34 minutes click the link above.

When it's over all the we have a winery of the year, best in show wine, best Hudson Valley Wine made with Hudson Valley fruit, best white, red, rose, sparkling, fruit and dessert wine, cider, spirit.
Awards that were handed out (and listed below according to winery) were 32 Bronze Medals, 33 Silver Medals, 20 Gold Medals and 13 Double Gold Medals.

2015 Hudson Valley Wine & Spirits Competition Results by Debbie Gioquindo

Results: 2013 Hudson Valley Wine & Spirits Competition

Another year, another competition but this one was different.

Every year I contact the same judges.  It's kind of like a cult when you begin to judge a competition.  So many of my judges came back this year.  However, I was faced with a cancellation 4 days from the competition.  So I sent a note out to my judges and Nicholas came through with a judge who is my equivalent in Connecticut. Renee Allan from the Wine Institute of New England. I can't thank her enough for volunteering her time with all of us Saturday morning.

What was different this year?  Let's just say cucumbers.  Remember back in June when I judged the Ultimate Wine Challenge?  We were served cucumbers as palate cleansers. I thought this was amazing as it really worked for me and guess what I have in my garden....so I sliced a few cukes for the competition and I had some amazing results!

This 2013 Hudson Valley Wine & Spirits Competition had more Double Gold and Gold Medals than I have ever seen on the 5 years that I have been organizing it.  I attribute it to the palate cleansing cucumbers! But really, I believe the quality of the wine & spirits produced in the Hudson Valley have increased tremendously and this proves it!

Another element to the competition was the Governor of New York.  He was expected to attended the Hudson Valley Wine Festival and was slated to give out the award for the Best Hudson Valley Wine made with Hudson Valley fruit.  This was all a part of his Taste NY Program.  Well the Governor didn't show up and the award was given out by Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy  to Millbrook Vineyards & Winery for their Tocai Friulano Proprietor's Special Reserve. So exciting for Hudson Valley!

It was a little stress full for me.  I was given a table at the Governor's reception to display the winning wines. So as we went along a bottle of the Double Gold and Gold Medal wines were being pulled.  I was on the final rounds (best of) where the winning wines are decided by a vote of all 15 judges. During this time I had the festival coordinator calling me to see if the wines are ready, the Governor's office texting me to find out the winning Hudson Valley wine and I was trying to get through the last most important rounds of the competition.  Yes a little stressful but we got through it with great success.

Congratulations to all the wineries.

Results of 2013 Competition

Wine at 9 Radio Show

Last Thursday I was on the Wine at 9 show on WHVW 950AM with Lisa O and Linda Pierro from Hudson Valley Wine Magazine discussing the Hudson Valley Wine Competition.  I love radio and I guess I didn't realize how much being that I grew up in the industry. (No I was never on the radio until recently)

Below is the audio from the show for your listening pleasure.  I discuss what the wine competition entails, how it's judged and what goes on behind the scenes.

Click here to listen to the show

Organizing and Running a Wine Competition

Many of you might know I run the Hudson Valley Wine Competition.  It kind of fell in my lap 4 years ago.  One might ask "How do you organize and run a wine competition?" I will tell you it isn't easy, it's time consuming, but it is rewarding.

When I first began to work the "back room" at the competition I thought, there has got to be a better way.  The person running the competition at the time was doing his best, but the scoring was so time consuming. When he moved to Washington State, I took charge.  The first thing I did was volunteer to work the "back room" at the New York Wine & Food Classic.  I've been doing this for 4 years now.  I really enjoy working this competition, I pick up lots of good tips for my competition, have met some wonderful people and I get a new Uncork NY shirt every year.

First thing I did was find a home for the competition.  I approached the Hudson Valley Wine Fest and they thought it was a great idea. Gone were the brown bags and pouring the judges at the table.  In were tuits, two rooms to use for the competition, trays,tray stands and glass rentals.  One hurdle down.

Next was locating judges for the competition that would like to give up their Saturday morning to judge Hudson Valley Wines.  I started out with a small list, but through twitter, the wine school I attended for my CSW designation and word of mouth, I've been collecting a list.  Every year around April I will email my judges list to see if they are available the Saturday after Labor day.  I look for 15 judges to sit in a panel of 3.  Judges from all walks of life.  It is good to have an assortment of knowledgable wine people judging.

Then you are hit with last minute emergencies.  Two weeks before the competition, on of the judges had a family emergency and had to fly to Europe.  I begin asking around and run into my neighbor Jill in the grocery store and she recommended someone who was very knowledgeable in wine as did Val from Arlington Liquor (and also approved of Jill's recommendation)  I had two and came out with one of them saying yes.  Fantastic!  All is good now or so I thought.  The day before the competition I get an email from another judge saying he is ill and can't make it.  I try hard to find someone at the last minute but was unsuccessful.  So what does one do.  We have a panel of 2. Have to work with what you have.

The Back Room.  What is the back room.  The back room is where it all happens. When I arrive with the wine on Friday, I have it all sorted in cases that go with each panel.  P1, P2, P3, P4, P5.  There are usually 5  - 6 cases per panel.  I put the whites in the fridge according to panel as well.  I try to assign 2 people to each panel.  Their job is to take care of the judges.  Make sure they have water, bread, bring them their flights, and clear their flights.  So where do I come up with these volunteers.  I begin with my friends and hope they will still be my friends afterwards.  This year a put a note on Twitter and Facebook and that got me a volunteer.  Then just through networking.  After all, you do get a free lunch and tickets to the wine festival.

Now the preparations before are enough to pull your hair our.  The wines are all arranged in categories and hopefully every winery sends the requested number of bottles by the date on the application.  That so isn't my case as the weekend before the competition I was contacting wineries asking them for their wine.  I'm type A and want everything organized so come the day I need to move the wine I pick up and go. It takes time to make sure you have the wines in the flights, labeled correctly, boxed correctly, double checked and then transported.  One winery owner was complaining because he had to close his tasting room early on the Friday of Labor Day to bring me the wines...HELLO - the application said I need the wines by August 22, it's August 31.

Then there is the paperwork. The judges sheets, labeling each bottle with the unique number, flight, panel.  Dividing the wines so that each panel taste equal wines and a good variety.

One of the things we provide is a nice lunch.  Well...it's a festival so you can pass judgement on nice, it's not white linen...We transport all the open bottles of wine that were used in the competition to the covered picnic area and Gigi's in Rhinebeck caters the meal. They've been doing a wonderful job.

One might ask....do I have any help with transporting 25 or so cases of wine plus materials to the competition.  Heck NO.  I'm a one women show.  My wonderful husband Paul did move all 25 cases of wine from our dining room to the garage, but I humped those cases from the garage to the truck to the festival.  I didn't mind so much since I worked all week at the gym on my upper body and had my Ipod on listening to 50 Shade of Grey.


2012 Hudson Valley Wine Competition Results

Hudson Valley Wine Fest and Competition a Family Affair

This weekend is the Hudson Valley Wine Festival.  I've been part of this festival for quite a long time.  It began for me about 9 years ago (festival is 11 yrs old.) when I had a booth at the festival promoting my travel business. Boy have I morphed and grown since then.  It was at that festival 9 years ago that I got introduced to Hudson Valley Wines and began my journey. (That's pretty sad considering I live and grew up in this area and that was my first experience with the regions wine.)

The festival has grown too.  They moved from Greig Farm to the Dutchess County Fairgrounds.  Wise choice!  Didn't know how many more thunder storms in a tent I could handle, not to mention the mud. If you haven't attended the festival, it usually will rain on Saturday at 3pm.

The festival has become a family affair for us.  My daughter Melanie has been the cashier for Whitecliff Vineyards at the festival.  All to often that means she is spending her birthday behind a cash register of wine. Not really what a teenager wants to do.  This year I am proud to say she will not be there as she is embarking on a new chapter of her life at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island majoring in Hospitality and Event Planning. (The nut doesn't fall far from the tree, does it.Or I should say grape from the vine)  My husband is often seen pouring for Whiteciff as he is the Assistant Winemaker.

I've worked for some of the local wineries at the festival and last year launched my wine brand Happy Bitch Wines along with Keryl Pesce at the festival. We had festival attendees vote on which varietal of Happy Bitch Rose we should produce.  Number 2 won!  This year you can come buy, taste and purchase Happy Bitch Rose (#2) along with Happy Bitch glasses and shirts. After all you chose the wine!

Last year the responsibility of the Hudson Valley Wine Competition fell in my hands. I approached the festival about holding the competition there.  What a perfect match!  It went so well, that it is now the new home of the Hudson Valley Wine Competition.  We have 15 judges that judge approximately 90 varietals of local wine and spirits in a blind tasting. This takes place from 9 - noon.  If you get to the festival early, you can peek in the building to watch.

Once the competition wraps up you can find me pouring Happy Bitch Wines!  If you don't have your tickets, no worries, you can get tickets at the door.  See you this weekend at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds for the Hudson Valley Wine Fest!

Fruit Wine

I will be the first to admit, I tend to shy away from fruit wine.  Wine made with apples, pears, cherries, etc.  In keeping an open mind, I recently had the opportunity to taste wine from Brookview Station Winery.  Brookview Station is located just outside Albany, NY in Castleton.  They make wine from fruit from their orchards.

All their fruit wine is processed in their cider press and aged in stainless steel tanks.

I'll begin with the Whistle Stop White.  This is a semi sweet Apple Wine.  We know I'm not much for sweet wines, but this wine wasn't that sweet.  Believe it or not, it had a dry finish.  The apple was not overpowering in this wine.  It was well balanced and I found that in all the fruit wines I tasted from Brookview Station.  This wine would be great and refreshing on a hot summers day.

I will review more of Brookview Stations wines this week.   Upcoming posts are Pear Wine, Apple-Pear Wine, Strawberry Sunrise.

Cheers to the Winning Wines of the Hudson Valley Wine Comopetition

Terrapin Restaurant in Rhinebeck New York was the setting Saturday April 25^th for the 5^th Annual Hudson Valley Wine Competition. This competition highlights the Hudson Valley Regions wines and the growing interest the public has for them. The competition was open to all commercial wineries in the Hudson Valley AVA using New York State fruit, but more exclusively, Hudson Valley fruit.

The wines were judged by a panel of distinguished wine experts that included Lenn Thompson – founder of Lenndevours.com; Chris Gerling – Cornell’s Extension Associate for Enology for New York State;, Steven Carrizzo – Mid Valley Wines and the winephilosopher.com ; Bill Rattner – Sommelier & Wine Director for Xaviar’s Restaurant Group; Jennifer Redmond; Ned Towle, Founder and Director of the Westchester Wine School; Bill Miller- Arlington Wines & Liquors; W.R. Tish Founder Wine For All; Liz Johnson, Food Editor of the Journal News and LoHud.com; Christopher Matthews – Independent Wine Writer and wine and spirits columnist for the New York Law Journal Magazine; Brian Simpson – Assistant Food & Beverage Manager, Roger Smith Hotel, NYC. More info on the judges can be found at here.

The Hudson Valley Wine & Grape Association will hold a Hudson Valley Wine & Culinary Food Pairing - A Celebration of Hudson Valley Wines on June 12, 2009, 7pm at Terrapin Catering at the Dinsmore Golf Course, Rt 9, Staatsburg NY. The winners of the 5 major categories wines will be paired with haut cuisine prepared by the Chef Josh Kroner. Tickets for this dinner are $85 per person and can be purchased at http://hudsonvalleywineandgrapeassociation.ticketleap.com

Eighty wines made in the Hudson Valley were entered in the competition. Wines were judged based on the American Wine Society evaluation criteria. Overall the wines from the 15 wineries that entered scored higher than in the past four competitions, suggesting to all present, a continuing improvement in winemaking for the area.

The Best Sparkling was awarded to Whitecliff Vineyards & Winery for their 2007 Sparkling Wine

The Best White Wine was award to Benmarl Winery for their 2008 Riesling

The Best Red Wine was awarded to Millbrook Winery for their 2007 Block 5 East Pinot Noir

Best Tree Fruit was awarded to Adair Vineyards for their 2008 Peche

Best Dessert Wine was awarded to Warwick Valley Winery for their American Fruits Strawberry.

Best in Show is awarded to the highest scoring wine and goes to Adair Vineyards for their 2008 Peche

Best Hudson Valley Wine, which had to be made with 100% fruit from the Hudson Valley goes to Millbrook Winery for their 2007 Block 5 East Pinot Noir.

A complete list of winners can be found by clicking here

View pictures from the competition here

Behind the Scenes - HV Wine Competition

I thought I'd give you a behind the scenes look at what goes into a wine competition here in the Hudson Valley. Months prior to the competition, a letter went out to about 25 wineries in the Hudson Valley. The wines intered in the competition need to be made with 100% NY State Grapes preferably grapes grown in the Hudson Valley. There were 80 entries from approximately 15 Hudson Valley Wineries.

After collecting the various entries and unpacking them. My dining room looked like this. Wine was arranged according to flight and judges.Left hand side of table were Judges on the X panel; the right Judges on the Y panel. Head and foot of table were all taste.

Next was time to take the capsules off the wine and put the labels on wine and bottles. Colleen and I enlisted the help of my daughter Melanie and her friend Nicole. It's good to put to teenagers to work on a Friday night. They received quite an education on wine as well. Look for them as future Sommeliers.
Then Colleen and I had to bag each of the bottles and pack them for transport in the morning. We were up quite late and I got quite cranky. Thanks for putting up with my crankiness Col.

Arriving at Terrapin Restaurant in Rhinebeck a good 30 minute ride, we unpacked and set up.










Let the judging begin. All judges arrived on time, however we did have a no show. Chris Carbone the Beverage Manager for Terrapin was nowhere to be found. We started and proceeded without him. Let the Judging Begin!










There are many things we do "back stage" like tallying the scores, getting ready for the next flight, drying glasses etc. I will post the official winners later this week.


I would like to thank all the judges for taking time from their Saturday to Judge this competition. We had a great panel and I hope to see you all there again next year.