"wine awards" news and stories

Often stopping in a tasting room, you'll hear the staff person at the tasting counter rattle off nonsense about a product's ribbons, medals and other accolades. I think to myself, "Of course, your grandmother's muscadine wine won double gold at the county fair!"

Magazines and newspapers list top ten winners that drive retail and restaurant staff insane with customers carrying clippings asking if you have any on the list. If you don't, you are looked at with suspicion and a pinch of disdain. After all, how could you be such a moron to not have at least one of the top 10?

Some companies exist for the main purpose of telling you what you should drink. The scenario usually goes something like this:
1. You send in a sample.
2. Samples are judged by a panel of experts.
3. Press releases and parties celebrate the winners.

Read more about the LeNell's take on wine and spirits awards, after the jump ...

The French are still getting over the 1976 Judgment of Paris, when some uppity California wineries took the top awards in a blind tasting between their wines and France's best. Now it's a New York winery that's sweeping the underdog awards: Fox Run Vineyards of the Finger Lakes Wine Region was named one of the top 100 wineries of the year by Wine and Spirits magazine.

Why is this significant, you ask? Mainly because, while wine critics like to pat New York fondly on the head, saying their wines are "up-and-coming" and "getting there," no one has yet gone so far as to say that New York wineries can compete on a global scale. California proved itself in '76; Oregon and Washington made it in the '90s or so. Now it's the Finger Lakes' turn to shine.

Hey, we're American; we always root for the underdog.

I had a bottle of the 2006 Dry Riesling in my rack, so I popped it in the fridge to see if it was worth all the hype (in addition to the Wine & Spirits kudos, this particular bottle got a nod for a "best American wine $15 and under" from Food and Wine magazine in April). The wine is good--fragrant and floral, with racy acidity and balanced fruit that comes from its cool-climate location in the middle of the state. It definitely has the potential to stand up to other cool-climate Rieslings from Germany, Austria, and New Zealand in a blind tasting.

Have you tasted any New York wines? Do you think they're the next big thing or more hype than heft?