Grand Harvest Awards
About the Competition
2012 Grand Harvest Awards
Competition Dates: November 5-7, 2012
Super Saver Entry Deadline: August 24, 2012
Deadline to enter: September 28, 2012
Check back soon for entry details.
Celebrating its 21st year, the Grand Harvest Awards was held March 1-2 at Villa Chanticleer, Healdsburg, California. Twenty-two judges evaluated 1,346 entries and awarded a total of 947 medals including 145 gold, 401 silver and 401 bronze. Garnering medals at the Grand Harvest Awards (GHA) is difficult to achieve because of its traditional high standards of excellence. Most entries in the GHA were grown and produced in the United States and Canada with some originating in New Zealand and Turkey. To see a full list of award winners, please click here.
About the competition:
Truly one of a kind! What sets Grand Harvest Awards apart from the rest? One word...terroir.
Established in 1990, it is the only wine-judging event in North America that is based on terroir - a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation, and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions, grapes and wine making savoir-faire, which contribute to give its specific personality to the wine.
In other competitions, this factor is ignored. At the Grand Harvest, judges taste wines with other wines of the same appellation. Thus, with cross-regional competition removed, the inherent quality of wines can be seen without the influences that sometimes eclipse even a wine of very high quality.
Beyond the determination of medals, the Grand Harvest Awards affords its winners a unique selling proposition-its terroir ranked against its competitors. GHA recognizes wine entries that best exemplify the terroir of their respective viticultural areas, and acknowledges its influence on wine quality. A medal in this wine competition not only gives your wine prestige and selling power, it adds talking points in your retail room. Favorable awards support increased local and regional sales. A win in Grand Harvest can put your wine into a whole new sales category. A goal of Grand Harvest is to learn more about how terroir contributes qualities of excellence and distinctiveness to wines. Over the course of this event, judges have learned to recognize when terroir is - and is not - a factor of wine quality. We think the bar has been lifted a little, and as a result, each year we perceive greater interest in terroir by winemakers and critics alike. Favorable awards support increased local and regional sales. A win in Grand Harvest can put your wine into a whole new sales category. All wines are judged in the context of their viticultural region in order to accomplish two things: greater sensitivity to the complexities and nuances of regional wines and also to measure the influence of regional soil and weather characteristics on the taste and quality of individual wines.