Missouri Wine 2024 Governor’s Cup Competition

July 9-11th the 2024 Missouri Wine Competition was held in Columbia, MO. On Tuesday, July 7th they held the label contest as well as their “Flight Crew” of volunteers polished glasses, labeled bottles, and prepped for the next 2 days of blind tasting of over 240 Missouri Wines showcasing some of the best of what Missouri has to offer!

On July 10th, a panel of 8 expert judges formed to blind taste the wines. Wines were evaluated and the ones that received a gold medal distinction went head-to-head on the following day for the honor of a Best of Class Award in their respective category. The top wines then competed for the ultimate recognition, the Governor’s Cup Award which was presented to the best wine in the state. This year’s honor went to Stone Hill Winery’s 2022 Cross J. Norton—a single Norton varietal. They also won the C.V. Riley award for best Norton. Congratulations to Stone Hill Winery—what an honor to achieve.

The top white varietal went. To Adam Puchta Winery’s 2023 Dry Vignoles. They received the Husmann-Jaegar award named after George Husmann and Herman Jaeger. Both influential men who were crucial in the early development of the Missouri Wine industry. Congratulations to the team of Adam Puchta Winery!

While Shamrock Hills didn’t win a gold, we didn’t walk away empty handed! For our first vintage of wine and our first wine competition, we were thrilled to be recognized with a silver medal for our 2023 Vignoles and a bronze medal for our 2023 Carbonated Moscato and our 2023 Chardonel. We were competing against a hefty group of renowned Missouri Winemakers and talent throughout the state of Missouri.

Mike Riley has come a long way honing in on his winemaking skills and he gives a lot of credit to Stefan and Dean from the University of Missouri Viticulture and Enology Extension services as well as the winemakers around him who have shared and coached him through a few challenging hiccups. We love how Missouri Wineries are a united collaboration where people aren’t competing with each other but work in collaboration so that we all can provide customers and wine enthusiasts an experience when they come to visit.

Watch out California, Oregon, and Washington State—Missouri is continuing to step up their game for wine making!

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