Commercial Wine Competition - Commercial Wine Competition

The OC Fair Commercial Wine Competition

The OC Fair Commercial Wine Competition has been in continuous operation since 1976. This competition, operated by the Orange County Wine Society, is accepted as California’s finest and most meticulously judged California-only wine competition which assesses every wine blind and judges each for its faithfulness to the varietal. Throughout the rigorous judging processes, each medal-winning wine is tasted by at least 4 different judges. Our judges are themselves commercial winemakers or winery principals. Awards include medals Best of Class, Double Gold, Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

Professional Judging

Wines entered are evaluated by over 90 of the most prestigious winemakers in the United States

No Fee

Entry is free, 6 bottles (3 for limited production wineries) for each entry gets you in the competition

Online Results

Winners are published year-round on our competition results site

Press Release

Award Level

Minimum award level published is selected by YOU

Social Media

Descriptive information on your winery and your award wines are published online

Retailer Support

Major retailers such as Total Wine and Hi-Time Wine Cellars sponsor the event and highlight it to their patrons

About The Competition

This competition is free to any California winery; we only request 6 bottles per entry. There are no additional charges or hidden fees. Proceeds raised from the sale of your entries help fund our enology and vinicultural Scholarship Fund. From inception the OCWS’ scholarship program to date, $740,000 has been donated by the OCWS and the Marino Family Scholarship Fund and the Chris Cunningham Endowment.

Your entry funds our scholarship donations to California colleges

Allan Hancock College, San Luis Obispo
California Polytechnic University, Pomona
California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo
California State University, Fresno
Orange Coast College
University of California, Davis
Napa Valley College
Sonoma State University

Online presence of your award winning wines with links to your winery website exists for a year

Minimum award level published is selected by YOU

Your wines are exposed to over 1 million OC Fair attendees with tastes being offered for a small fee

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Winery Benefits

Entering your wines into the competition will increase your brands’ awareness and increase sales with our active social media campaigns. Throughout the year, we post tweets about submitted wines, using your content. Our public Facebook page also contains wine-related content. During the OC Fair, wines are poured at the 7,300 square foot Wine Courtyard, exposing your wines to 1.3 million fair attendees. This venue is staffed by the Wine Society’s members that are able to intelligently discuss the wines they are pouring.

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Our Judges

The 90 experienced judges are comprised of only qualified winemakers or winery principals. This group is a combination of seasoned professionals representing almost every AVA in the State of California. Ranging in experience from 10 to 40 years, they are extremely qualified to fairly evaluate wines of diverse characteristics.

Meet the Judges

Testimonials

Ken Volk
Dir./Owner of Wine Making, Kenneth Volk Vineyards: It is the only competition that I am aware of that does not charge an entrance fee. Many competitions charge a significant amount of money to just enter the wines into their competition as well as requiring a large number of bottles. These wine competitions are basically moneymakers for individuals.
Shauna Rosenblum
Winemaker, Rock Wall Wine Company: As a winemaker I was commenting to someone earlier that, for me judging this competition I get to see a huge cross-section of what my peers are doing in this industry. That would cost me $10,000 to go and buy that (information) retail.

Enter the OC Fair Wine Competition

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