Winners of azcentral wine competition revealed today
Even in times of pandemic, there will still be wine.
Judging for the 2020 azcentral Arizona Wine Competition, which picks the best wines made in the state each year, is complete. Winners will be announced tonight.
But like almost everything else in 2020, the awards ceremony will be virtual.
Unlike past years, there will be no in-person gala. The silver lining? This year, everyone can attend.
The ceremony will be streamed on azcentral at 5 p.m. today.
Who’s likely to win?
Instead of a ballroom filled with winemakers anxious to find out what they won, this ceremony will feature winemakers from three wineries who have won top awards. The winemakers will find out at the ceremony what award they won.
Invited winemakers are:
Michael Pierce of Bodega Pierce. Maynard James Keenan of Caduceus Cellars.
Valerie and Daniel Wood of Heart
Wood Cellars.
The Arizona Republic and azcentral have run the competition for 10 years at the request of the Arizona Wine Growers Association.
This year’s competition attracted 232 entries from 27 different wineries.
Arizona’s wine industry
What once was a small group of wineries with uneven offerings has grown in the past 20 years into a robust industry. Wines from Arizona have garnered national acclaim and wines from Arizona are routinely on lists at some of the state’s finest restaurants.
The industry has also provided a tourism boost to the regions where the grapes are grown and the wine is made: Willcox and Sonoita-Elgin in southern Arizona and the Verde Valley in northern Arizona. Main Street through Old Town Cottonwood is home to several tasting rooms.
Some of the state’s tasting rooms have reopened with limited capacity. Some are only offering wines by the glass, not tastings. Phone ahead before visiting.
Wine judging, of course, can’t be done virtually.
Judging for the contest was held Nov. 2 at the Mountain Shadows resort in Paradise Valley. This year, they tasted in a room that was open to the outdoors, with wide spacing and other precautions in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The awards, though, like so many other things now, may be viewed online — glass of wine in hand.