On Tuesday, a fifteen person panel gathered at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus for a unique wine tasting.  They voted on their favorite wines made from fruits grown in cold climates.  Hosted by the Minnesota Grape Growers Association, the Minnesota State Fair and the University of Minnesota, this is the only competition of its type for these cold-weathered wines.  The University of Minnesota helped develop several of the cold-hardy grapes that are used to make the wines in the competition.   The results of the competition were released today (8/27) at the Minnesota State Fair.

Awards

In addition to Gold, Silver and Bronze medals, the ICCWC awards three Best of Category wines (red, white, specialty/fortified) as well as the Minnesota Governor’s Cup Award. Below are the results of this year’s inaugural event.

A complete listing of all the winners can be found by visiting the website for the 2009 Minnesota State Fair.

Categories

There were 34 different competition categories, including Native Grape, French & American Hybrids, Sparkling, Specialty & Fortified, Non-Grape, and 100% Cold Hardy Grape wines.

Native Grapes
Labrusca white grape
Labrusca red grape
Riparia

Red Grape¹
Frontenac
Marechal Foch
Marquette
Sabrevois
St. Croix
Other Red Hybrids (hybrid must be identified; Superintendent reserves the right to disqualify any variety deemed not “Cold Hardy” for the purposes of this competition)
Red Blends (75% cold hardy varieties listed below)
Blush/Rose (75% cold hardy varieties listed below)

White Grape¹
Frontenac Gris
Edelweiss
Kay Gray
LaCrescent
LaCrosse
Louise Swenson
Prairie Star
St. Pepin
Other White Hybrids (hybrid must be identified; Superintendent reserves the right to disqualify any variety deemed not “Cold Hardy” for the purposes of this competition)
White Blends (75% cold hardy varieties listed below)

Specialty & Fortified²
Port Style
Late Harvest
Other Dessert

Sparkling²
Grape, dry/semi-dry (less than 1% residual sugar)
Grape, sweet (greater than 1% residual)
Fruit, dry/semi-dry and sweet (made from cold-hardy fruit varieties listed under non-grape wine)

Non-Grape Wines³
Apple and pear wines
Stone fruit wines
Berry wines
Mead and mead/fruit blends
Rhubarb wine

100% Cold Hardy Grape Wines
100% Cold Hardy Red – a minimum 75% varietal or blend containing 100% cold hardy grape varieties as listed below; Red wine
100% Cold Hardy White – a minimum 75% varietal or blend containing 100% cold hardy grape varieties as listed below; White wine.

1. Only French & American Hybrids as listed
2. Only wines made from cold-hardy grape varieties listed under Native & Hybrid may enter
3. cold-hardy fruit wines and mead as listed may enter