Wine Competitions and Marketing!

NC Wineries Win at San Francisco Wine Competition!

More that 5,800 wines were evaluated by 48 judges over three days.

The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition is the largest in North America and one of the most influential commercial competitions of American wine.

Several North Carolina wineries won medals in the 2022 competition. The list of winners include JOLO Winery and Vineyards, Biltmore Estate Winery, RayLen Vineyards and Winery, Junius Lindsay Vineyards, Raffaldini Vineyards, and Sanctuary Vineyards.

JOLO Winery and Vineyards won a total of 10 medals. Gold for the NV Jolotage Reserve, Gold for the 2021 Pink, and Gold for Muddy Paws. JOLO also won six silver medals and one bronze medal.

Biltmore Estate Winery brought home six medals. Gold – 2020 North Carolina Estate Róse and Gold for the 2020 Estate Sauvignon Blanc. Add to that four silver medals for the Non-Vintage Brut, the 2020 American Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2019 American Pinot Noir, and the 2020 American Red Blend.

Junius Lindsay Vineyard won gold for the 2020 Rosé Sparkling and a bronze for the NV Party Line Red Blend.

Raffaldini Vineyards won four medals. Gold for the 2019 Grand Riserva Red Blend and Silver for the 2019 Sangiovese Classico.

Sanctuary Vineyards in Jarvisburg won three silver and one bronze. Silver for the 2019 Coastal Collage Red Blend, Silver for the 2020 White Sand White Blend, and a Silver for the 2019 Shipwreck Red Blend.

RayLen Vineyards took home six medals. Gold for the 2020 Category 5, Silver Medals for the 2020 Cab Franc, 2020 Barrel Chardonnay, and the red blend 2020 Carolinius, plus a bronze for the 2020 Reserve Petit Verdot.

Another excellent showing from North Carolina winemakers.

Keep raising that bar! Here’s to all the North Carolina winning wines and winemakers! 🍷🍷

Full list medals awarded can be viewed at this link. ➡️ 2022 San Francisco Wine Competition

Palmetto Wine Competition 2022

JenNis Beverage Marketing is excited to announce the 2022 Palmetto Wine Competition will be held May 7th at The Belmont Inn downtown historic Abbeville, South Carolina.

It is with great excitement that we return South Carolina’s wine competition to its rightful home!

The goal of the Palmetto Wine Competition remains to promote and give positive exposure to the wine, mead, and cider producers of South Carolina!

The 2022 competition will feature judges with credentials from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust, Master Court of Sommeliers, French Broad Vigneron’s, and the American Wine Society.

An awards dinner will be announced at a later date.

Vineyard Snow Pics – Jan 16, 2022

It’s a winter wonderland here in the Deep South!

A few of our favorite vineyards shared some snow pics!

Alan was holding down the fort @ St. Paul in Hendersonville, NC

Meanwhile…

CeNita Winery share an majestic view of the vineyard covered in snow

Haze Gray Vineyards in Dobson, NC got a nice dusting

The Cottage Vineyard in Cleveland, GA warned against trying to make it up their mountain drive

Parker-Binns in Tryon, NC was a winter wonderland ❄️

The view at beautiful Overmountain Vineyards in Tryon, NC reminds us of a classic poem

Catawba Farms in Newton, NC was truly beautiful

12 Spies Vineyard in Rabun Gap, GA as pretty as a postcard

Addison Farms Vineyard in Leicester, NC just breathtaking in the snow

Stony Knoll Vineyards in Dobson, NC shared the Merlot in the Snow!

Point Lookout Vineyard in Hendersonville, NC

….and Josh and Deb @ Cityscape Winery in Pelzer, SC share a snow pic of the brand-new soon to be opened Tasting Room!

Cheers 🍷🍷

Wine Competitions 2022

It was a busy 2021, we were fortunate to organize two wine competitions in spite of Covid.

The first North Carolina Mead-Cider-Fruit Wine Competition with judging held in Flat Rock and the first ever American Sangria Challenge held in Tryon.

For 2022, we’re planning our two state competitions.

May of 2022, will be judging for the Palmetto Wine Competition.

Our plan this year, is to return the judging and awards dinner to The Belmont Inn in Abbeville, South Carolina.

Amazingly, we have our judging panels all committed!

We’re so excited for the 2022 Palmetto Wine Competition, as a couple of new wineries have opened in South Carolina.

Bigger and Better!!!

In August of 2022, we hold the second North Carolina Mead, Cider, and Fruit Wine Competition.

The first NC MCF was a huge success and we’re ultra excited to build this brand.

Several producers were very receptive and a few were very….well just say less than enthusiastic!

It’s ok…we’re used to it! We’ll win’em over this year!

After all, our NCMCF Judging panel consisted of the likes of,

Chuck Blethen – past President of the French Broad Vignerons / award winning amateur cider maker / and mega experienced competition judge.

Chris Frey, former American Home Brewers Association Board Member and experienced Mazer Cup competition judge.

Mike Tripka, award-winning mead/cider maker at Bee-Town Mead and Cider / BJCP certified Mead Judge / past president and judge of Savannah’s Domras Cup Competition.

Plus several other commercially successful award/winning mead and cider makers.

2022 looks to be a busy yet immensely fun year of promoting locally craft produced beverages!

Our ultimate goal with our competitions remains to positively influence and promote the quality of locally produced commercial craft beverages.

Here’s to 2022 and the Drink Local Movement!!

Cheers! 🥂

Biltmore Christmas Wines – Past Four Year Ratings

Each Year End for the Holiday season Biltmore Estate Winery releases a Christmas Red and Christmas White.

As Biltmore wine club members, we’ve been fortunate to taste a bottle of both each of the past four seasons.

We thought it’d be interesting to look back and see just how we rated each release.

Each release is a blend source from many different regions. The bottles feature beautiful Christmas scenes of Biltmore Estate.

As in the early days we were using a 20 point system, these rankings are adjusted accordingly to our current 100 point scale.

Biltmore Christmas Red 2018 – 2021

2021 – 78 points – Bronze Medal

2020 – 85 points – Silver Medal

2019 – 89 points – Silver Medal

2018 – 79 points – Bronze Medal

Biltmore Christmas White 2018 – 2021

2021 – 89 points – Silver Medal

2020 – 88 points – Silver Medal

2019 – 85 points – Silver Medal

2018 – 79 points – Bronze Medal

The Christmas releases for the most part have been fairly consistent.

The Christmas White we have since 2019 scored as a Silver Medal wine. The White release also has annually shown improvement.

The Christmas Red showed promise in 2019 and 2020 having scored at a Silver Medal. However, the 2021 Christmas release scored at a Bronze Medal level.

We get these are seasonal releases that Biltmore visitors buy because of the beautiful and artful Christmas Wine Label.

It’s just that we’ve grown to expect more from Biltmore Winery.

We’ll visit again next year as it’ll be very interesting to get a five year trend.

Merry Christmas and Cheers!

WineryEscapades inside Biltmore Estate at Christmas

2013 Speri Amarone della Valpocella

Vintage 2013.

Speri Amarone

della Valpocella

Appellation: Amarone della Valpolicella Classico!

Veneto, Italy.

Blend of 70% Corvina, 25% Rondinella, 5% Corvinone.

The fruit is dried via the appassimento process.

Decanted 60 minutes.

Deep ruby in color.

Intense enticing bouquet of black currant, black plum, blackberry jam, black cherry, fig, prune, star anise, violets, tobacco, and smoke.

Medium-full body, with excellent firm tannin structure with balanced medium acidity.

Complexed, layered, and intertwined flavors of black currant, black cherry, black plum, blackberry, prune, and fig preserves.

The fruit fades away to a lengthy pleasant finish of black licorice, graphite, star anise, smoke, and pipe tobacco.

An excellent sultry wine that is still drinking very well showing balanced acidity and alcohol with prominent and layered flavors.

15% ABV.

A gift from our son!

$80 a bottle.

One of the best wines we’ve the opportunity to review.

JenNis Beverage Marketing score of 95 points.

Turner Family Eggnog 2021

This year’s traditional eggnog was blended in quart batches.

We couldn’t locate our favorite Southern Comfort brand eggnog. So this year we blended with Sealtest Light Eggnog. A really solid second choice!

We also added a new special ingredient this Christmas Day. Two shots of Santa’s Little Helper Liqueur from Twelve 33 Distillery in Little, River, South Carolina. The peppermint in the Santa’s Little Helper really just added a little something special!