What do these medals tell us as consumers? At the least, they show that several serious wine lovers serving as judges thought these were high-quality wines. Wine competition judges are typically drawn from the industry — distributors, retailers, winemakers and writers. They may be master sommeliers or masters of wine, or have trained through the Wine and Spirit Education Trust or the American Wine Society.
I’ve heard several people dismiss competition medals as pure marketing fluff. And of course, the main point is marketing. Competitions offer wineries validation with medals, which wineries then use to attract consumers. But a good showing in a competition can help establish a little-known boutique winery’s reputation.
Mark and Maggie Malick, the husband-and-wife team behind Maggie Malick Wine Caves in Purcellville, Va., saw that effect a few years ago when their 2017 Tannat won a best-in-class award at the San Francisco International Wine Competition, one of the most prestigious in the country. “Wine lovers will seek you out specifically for that wine,” Mark Malick told me. “So wine competitions really do bring in consumers to our winery, just like point scores [on wine store shelf-talkers] affect wine buying decisions.”
Doug Frost, who is a master sommelier and a master of wine, has an usual perspective as a partner in Echolands Winery in Washington state and organizer of the Jefferson Cup wine competition. Medals can help, but only to a point, he said.
“How many do you really need?” Frost asked, with his winery hat on. “It’s a financial decision as to whether or not you can get a marketing push, and a waste of money beyond that.”
As organizer of the Jefferson Cup competition, Frost hopes to draw attention to the growth of quality wine throughout the United States. “Wines from the better-known American appellations provide a metric against which wines from the rest of America can be measured,” he explained. Competition results demonstrate that wines from Missouri, Michigan or Texas can stand proud alongside better-known labels from California, for example.
State competitions, such as the Governor’s Cup awards in Virginia, Maryland and other states, have a similar goal of promoting homegrown wines, though without benchmarks from more established states. The Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association holds an annual competition to highlight wines from the East Coast. Do they tell us “the best wines” in the state or region? No, because not every winery enters. But they do show who’s among the best and can alert us to new wineries we might want to explore.
The medal list in this year’s Virginia Governor’s Cup competition was released this month, and the Cup winner will be announced Feb. 23 at a public event in Richmond. I have been a judge at this competition several years, though I did not participate this year.
The big knock against competitions is their resemblance to speed dating. Judges typically have several wines in a flight and must evaluate and score them in a matter of seconds. This is not how we typically enjoy our wines. The competition format is based on first impressions — albeit experienced ones — and favors bolder, bigger wines over more subtle ones. Even the best wines might get a gold medal or best in class at one competition but silver or bronze with a different set of judges on a different day.
So with the multitude of wines available to us, medals, like ratings, can be a pointer to guide us toward wines of quality. The ultimate decision, of course, lies with you, the consumer.
“Use competition results as a guide, but not an absolute,” said Maggie Malick, who described herself as “very competitive” and lists her medal-winning wines on the winery website. “Trust your own palate. Medals may mean bragging rights for the winemaker, but they won’t mean anything to you if you don’t like the product. You’re the one buying it, so buy what you like.”
