Grand Harvest Awards
About the Competition
Location: Santa Rosa, California
Dates: Check back soon for 2009 event details
The Search For Terroir in the North American Market Begins Here
The fundamental departure of the Grand Harvest Award judging is to acknowledge the influence of 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.
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.
A goal of Grand Harvest is to learn more about how terroir contributes qualities of excellence and distinctiveness to wines. Over the past fourteen years 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.