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2021 US Amateur Winemaking Competition Results
Dear contestants,
When it was time to prepare the judging panels for your wines, we ran into a logistics problem. There were too many red wines and not enough judges to do a fair and thorough evaluation in one day. So, as President, I made the decision to add an extra day to the competition and move several red panels to the second day. Since the reds were being judged on both days, the possibility of a Best of Show(BOS) red winner was not possible. The alternative was to issue a Best of Class (BOC) to the Gold medal wine that won a head to head judging with other wines of that classification. An extra category was an Estate Grown awarded to a wine where the Estate was indicated on the entry form. The results were 21 winners of BOC instead of the usual 4 BOS winners. The BOC wines will have special recognition from our awards vendor. I hope this change will meet with your approval and you will continue to let the Cellarmasters taste and provide useful feedback as we start looking ahead to the 49th competition in November 2022.
Sincerely,
Michael Holland
2021 President
Cellarmasters Home Winemaking Club of Los Angeles
Results by Name
Results by Award
Cellarmasters in the News
A bunch has been written about our latest Wine Competition. Catch up on the news here:
The results are in for the 47th Annual US Amateur Winemaking Competition. Check them out HERE.
Wine Making Equipment Sale
Check out some great deals on used winemaking gear that will benefit the club.
Newsletter:
Our latest newsletter and some of our past ones can be downloaded on our Newsletter page.
Cellar Masters,
I received my Medals from the 2015 Wine Making Competition in January and want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Yes, the medals are nice, but my great thanks goes to those who organized and ran the competition and to those who judged. I have been involved in organizing officials for sporting tournaments and understand the work involved. Thank you for your dedication to promoting Amateur wine making.
To the judges, I was very disappointed by the results of a contest that I had entered previous to yours. Zero info! I can’t begin to thank you enough for the feedback sheets. I had no idea what was right with my wines, what was wrong or most importantly what I could do, if anything, to improve my wines. Thank you for reinvigorating my “juices”, pun intended. PLEASE continue to judge and share the detailed feedback for those of us learning the art. I for one will continue making, and now refining, my wines. Thank you for such constructive support!!!
George A. Anderson IV
George, thanks SO much for the great feedback. We pride ourselves on the notes and comments from the judges because as winemakers, that’s what we would want too. Objective feedback is invaluable and is hard to get from friends and loved ones. Thanks for entering and keep making wines.
GreggO
Cellarmasters
I received my ribbons from the 2016 Wine Making Competition today! I want to thank everyone – those that planned to those who judged. Thank you for promoting the amateur wine making world I love so much.
To the judges – I can’t begin to thank you enough for the feedback you gave me. Seriously the constructive feedback is priceless and from the comments you took your task very seriously. I thank you ten-fold!
Have a blessed year!
Dear Cellarmasters,
Two years ago I entered your amateur contest and was thrilled with the feedback received. This years I came back and tried again and AGAIN am delighted! What a great treat to receive ribbons and feedback on my wines from you and your slate of judges. I am inspired to send my port to the 2018 Wine Maker international Amateur contest in March. I was also very encouraged by your label contest this year to receive recognition for my 5 labels. I am anxiously waiting on those ribbons as well. I would love to share a photo with you but do not see a way to do so. Please advise if I can. Thank you again!
Extremely Encouraged Again,
George A. Anderson IV
IV Vintners
North Little Rock, AR
Was wondering if the judging sheets have been sent out yet February 25 2019
Donny, yes they were sent out last week so you should be seeing them soon. Thanks for entering.
Cellar Masters one & all,
My Thursday last week sucked! Until, that is, I got home. I ran to the mail and threw open the box. What to my wondering eyes appeared, a huge yellow envelope and 8 tiny other bills. My apologies to Clement C. Moore! Once a gain the thrill of a little boy opening a Christmas gift shivered through my body! It probably helped it was 39 degrees at the time & I wasn’t wearing a jacket. Thank you, Thank You, Thank You! The feedback sheets that you return to us are so very helpful and encouraging. It is impossible to try to improve with out knowing the good and the areas that need improvement. I was also please to find you returned to awarding Medals. It is just one more way you elevate your competition to make us amateurs feel like pros! I will continue to enjoy and recommend this competition for years to come! thank you and all of the judges so very much!
Thank you so much for persevering through difficult times and holding the wine competition! Congrats on a hugely successful event!
I am just curious when the tasting notes will be sent out?
Thanks again!
Hi Larry. We think the medals should come in from the manufacturer in about a week or so. Then we have to pack up all the tasting notes and medals and mail them out. If I had to guess, then maybe 3 weeks or so.
Thanks so much for entering. Keep an eye out for the 48th Annual Competition announcement coming soon.
GreggO
That is awesome. Thank you!
I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the 48th! Keep safe! Y’all do a great job over there.
Very much looking forward to the 48th! What’s your thinking on timing? Thank you very much for a very well run event that provided quite useful feedback. Cheers!
Hey Greg. I’m not sure what you mean about timing. The competition page should give you all the deadlines and info and get back to us if you have more specific questions.
https://cellarmastersla.org/48th-annual-us-amateur-wine-competition/
Thanks for entering!!
GReggO
Will there be a 48th competition in November of 2021? Looking forward to it! I always get such good feedback on my wines. Cheers!
I would have expected the tasting notes to have been mailed/received already from the 2021 Wine Competition, but I haven’t received any and my email to Gregg Ogorzelec has gone unanswered. At this point, I can only confirm that I paid for my entries and they were delivered. If they were ever judged, well that remains to be seen. More information please!
Elizabeth, Apologies here. There was a mistake in logging in your wines. We did receive them and did judge them but they were logged under another name. We have fixed that. We’ve just received the medals from the factory and they should being sent out to all entrants along with the tasting notes this week.
Apologies for the mix-up.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
Best,
Gregg Ogorzelec
Cellarmasters
Michael Holland has just informed me that in fact my tasting notes and medals (didn’t even know I won anything) have already been sent to another participant. Not sure if I will ever see them. Could you at least tell me what I won and for which wine?
Elizabeth, we’ll get your medals and tasting notes to you in some way. Your wine results are:
5-a Vinifera Grape California 2021 Silver
2-a White Blend California 2020 Silver
1-h Merlot Stags Leap 2021 Bronze
Apologies again for the mix-up.
Best,
GreggO