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The annual Idaho Wine Competition is staged in the heart of the Snake River Valley by Great Northwest Wine as a collaborative effort with the Idaho Wine Commission.

Here is a link to the year-by-year look back at the Idaho Wine Competition.

This judging celebrates the best of the Idaho wine industry, and the panel is blend of winemakers, sommeliers, journalists, wine buyers and educators from throughout the country. In recent years, judges have included Mike Dunne, longtime columnist for the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee; Ellen Landis, a contributor to SOMM Journal from St. Petersburg, Fla.; Sheri Sauter Morano, a Master of Wine from Durham, N.C., and Tim McNally, host, The New Orleans Dine, Wine and Spirits Show, WGSO 990 AM, New Orleans.

Each year, judges are led on a tour of the region by the Idaho Wine Commission during the day after the Idaho Wine Competition. Later in the year, the commission curates special lots featuring gold medal wines and offers them at a discount as part of its “Taste Idaho Gold” program. A portion of the sales are earmarked for the Idaho Wine Scholarship Fund, which assists members of the Idaho wine industry with education and development. Each year, a portion of the competition’s entry fees also support the scholarship fund.

Eric Degerman and Andy Perdue, co-founders of Great Northwest Wine LLC, launched the Idaho Wine Competition in 2010. The Idaho Wine Commission is the united voice to market, promote and champion all Idaho’s grape growers and winemakers.