I don’t enter wine competitions for these same reasons. Number one is economic, if I were to enter the recent San Francisco Chronicle Wine Comp it would have cost me $720 in entry fees + 48 bottles of wine. That’s a serious expenditure for a small producer. Think of this, there were 5,500 entries at $65 each, that amounts to some real money - what were their expenses? Number two is credibility. What guarantee is there that the awarded wines are of particular merit or did someone win a crap shoot? I concentrate on putting quality in the bottle, quality that my consumers can rely on.

I would wager that Bob Fraser, the ’Esxecutive Director’ of the SF Chron competition, pockets well in excess of 100 grand, with “some” proceeds going to the Santa Rosa JC wine program. I would be glad to lose that bet. Someone should look at the books. The wineries should conduct a coop wine tasting competition to bring down the costs.