Great Northwest Invitational Wine Competition

The Great Northwest Invitational Wine Competition-held annually by…you guessed it, Great Northwest Wine (an online advertiser and reviewer of some of our region’s best wines)-is a competition unlike any other. For one, wines are not submitted, they are nominated by the competition’s judges, so to be included is an honor in and of itself. There is no other wine competition in USA that works on a nomination based system. In the most recent competition, which took place October 8th and 9th, the judges were selected from Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Idaho.The judges for the 2014 Great Northwest Invitational Wine Competition are, from left: Cole Danehower, Ken Robertson, Ellen Landis, Tim O’Brien, Dave Holstrom, Yashar Shayan, Dave Smith, Chris Horn, Tony Kischner, Lane Hoss, Jeff Fournier, Jeff Moore, Mark Takagi, Matt Tessler, Barb Robertson and Ilene Dudunake. (Photo by Andy Perdue/Great Northwest Wine)

All wines in this competition are tasted blind; the judges do not know the producer or price of the wine, although they are granted the style or variety. The 16 separate judges work in groups of four, tasting and analyzing each wine. For a wine to win a Gold rating, it needs to be judged as Gold by three out of four of the judges. If all four Judges award the wine a Gold rating, it receives a Unanimous Double Gold.

This year, Robert Smasne, the winemaker here at Northwest Cellars, took home four Golds! Two for his own Smasne Cellars, and two for wines he’s crafted for Northwest Cellars- the 2011 Art den Hoed Vineyard Petite Sirah from Yakima Valley and the 2011 Madrigal from Columbia Valley. Our 2011 Verhey Vineyard Malbec from Yakima Valley was also awarded a Silver rating! We’re honored to have our wines included and judged by some of the region’s most prestigious palates. We’re already anxiously awaiting next year’s competition. Please take the time to check out Great Northwest Wine for a lot of awesome information about the Pac-NW wine scene.