I had the wonderful privilege of getting a behind the scenes tour of the Lone Star International Wine Competition sponsored by the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association. It was such a fun experience to see the pride and professionalism that goes into a wine competition of this scale. This is the oldest international wine competition in Texas and focuses on recognizing the quality and diversity of one of the fastest growing wine regions in the United States by promoting outstanding wines from Texas (and beyond).
You can see all the results here: https://www.txwines.org/lone-star-international-wine-competition/
This year there were many hundreds of wine entries from all over the country and world, and the team involved in organizing the wines was hard at work labeling and organizing the wines when we visited.
All wines are kept in a separate room and separate volunteers pour the wines into glasses that are numbered and delivered to the judges. This is called a blind tasting because the judges do not know whose wine they are sampling. They only know they are tasting a particular variety of wine.
The wine competition honors high-quality wines through a blind judging process that considers each entries appearance, aroma, body, taste, and finish.
The judges were selected and invited to participate based on their esteemed credentials in the Texas wine industry to provide professional and non-biased judging.
Grand Star Winners
Congratulations to these wineries for winning top awards at the competition this year:
- Grape Growers BBQ White NV Texas High Plains
- Blue Ostrich Winery and Vineyard Tannat 2022 Texas
- Wedding Oak Winery Castanet 2023 Texas High Plains
- Thirsty Mule Winery Sweet White NV Texas
- Presque Isle Wine Cellars Scarlet Kisses 2021 Lake Erie
- Torr Na Lochs 2017 Portejas Texas Hill Country
- Barefoot Bubbly Extra Dry NV California
- Wanderlust Wine Co. Rosé NV Castilla VdT
About TWGGA
The Texas Wine & Grape Growers Association is the state’s oldest and largest association primarily focused on betterment of the Texas wine industry. TWGGA’s mission is to promote the production and appreciation of premium grapes and fine
wines from Texas and to represent a unified state industry with common marketing, governmental, and educational goals.