Well..I have to apologize; I’ve been lax this week. I have been very busy with work and I somehow got talked into assisting with the Hudson Valley Wine Competition. The Hudson Valley Wine and Grape Association hosts this competition every year. They reached out to me to help them with the competition and arrange the banquet, which is open to the public and being held at the St. Andrew’s Café at the Culinary Institute of America. We’ll start out first with the competition.

The competition is going to be held on Saturday. There are currently 72 wines entered in an assortment of categories. I will take pictures so you can see a wine competition at it’s best. This competition is open to all Hudson Valley wineries and the wines must be made from New York Grapes..preferably Hudson Valley grapes and processed and made in the Hudson Valley.

The judges from the competition are Bob Brink – Fine Wines Manager at Arlington Liquor; Chris Gerling – Cornell’s Extension Associate for Enology for NY State; Steven Kolpan – Professor of Wine Studies, CIA, Harriet Lembeck – wine and spirits educator and writer; William Lembeck – Society of Wine Educators, Bill Radner – Sommelier, wine writer and educator.
Wine Director for Xaviar’s Restaurant Group; Jennifer Redmond , and Brian Smith– Professor of Wine Studies, CIA.

You will hear first of the winners here on my blog.

On May 30th at the St Andrew’s Café you will have the opportunity to mingle with the winemakers and enjoy the winning wines in the top 5 major categories – Sparkling, Red, White, Fruit & Dessert Wines paired with wonderful dishes from the chefs at the Culinary. For more information on the dinner visit www.hvwga.com I’ll be there!