The annual Idaho Wine and Cider Competition is staged each May in the heart of the Snake River Valley by Great Northwest Wine as a collaborative effort with the Idaho Wine Commission. Results from the judging are used to help promote Idaho Wine Month during June, which features Savor Idaho, and throughout the year.
Here is a link to the year-by-year look back at the beginnings of the Idaho Wine Competition leading up to the Idaho Wine and Cider Competition.
This judging celebrates the best of the Idaho wine industry, and the panel is a blend of winemakers, sommeliers, journalists, wine buyers and educators from throughout the country. The 2023 panel features Tim Donahue, Horse Thief Wine Consulting, Walla Walla, Wash.; Ilene Dudunake, owner, A New Vintage Wine Shop, Meridian, Idaho; Guy Harris, owner/wholesaler/importer, Cru Selections in Woodinville, Wash.; Lane Hoss, vice-president of operations/wine buyer of Anthony’s Restaurants, headquartered in Kirkland, Wash.; Kathryn House McClaskey, director of education, Hayden Beverage Co., Boise; Peg San Felippo, certified sommelier/journalist, Milwaukee, Wis., columnist, South Florida Sun-Sentinel; and Liz Thach, Ph.D., educator/journalist/consultant and Master of Wine, Stanford University Continuing Studies and Sonoma State University.
Each year, judges are led on a tour of the region by the Idaho Wine Commission during the day after the Idaho Wine and Cider 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.