2013 Colorado Governor’s Cup/AWS Competition

This year has been nothing short of a revelation for regional wine. First, there was the stunning quality of wines from the other 47 states in The Dallas Morning News and TexSom competition. Then, there was Maryland ?s winning effort at this year ?s Drink Local Wine conference.

Last weekend, there was Colorado ?s exceptional performance at the annual Governor ?s Cup. I tasted 100 wines, and almost none of them, to paraphrase one of the judges, was a drain dumper. It was easily the best showing from Colorado in the decade or so I have judged its wines.

The official results won ?t be released for a month or so, so I don ?t know the names of the winning wines (though I will update later). But there were still many highlights, which come after the jump:

? The final round, in which we pick the best wines of the competition, was nothing short of amazing. Usually, a couple of wines sneak in that don ?t deserve to be there, even in the most high-powered competitions. That wasn ?t the case here, and the dozen wines in the final rounds were all excellent. Three or four were good enough to be voted best of the competition, including a gew rztraminer and a port.

? A cabernet franc earned best wine honors, continuing Colorado ?s reputation for quality wine made with that grape. I was also impressed with several petit verdots, a red grape that is not easy to work with.

? The cherry wine that made the final round was the best cherry wine I have ever had. This is not damning with faint praise; rather, it ?s an acknowledgement that this wine as so well made that I ?d drink it with dinner, just like a grape wine. It would pair with game or duck.

Finally, a tip o ? the Curmudgeon ?s fedora to the new culinary center at Denver ?s Metro State, where the event was held. It ?s state of the art, and was a pleasure to judge there.