Sip Northwest Best of the Northwest Competition Results!

The results are in and we are proud to say team Clearwater Canyon Cellars did really well…2 gold metals and 2 judge’s picks!

Sip Northwest is both a printed and online magazine that focuses exclusively on beverages. If you geek out on all the beautiful liquid assets (wine, craft beer, cider, cocktails, soda, mead, tea, coffee etc.) of the Pacific Northwest then you need to start reading this page turner.

Sip Northwest runs one big competition, ‘Best of the Northwest’, each year. The structure of this competition is unique and has lured us back again this year to battle for notoriety. Generally each wine in a competition is awarded either gold, silver, bronze or no metal. In the Sip Northwest Competition, wines are grouped by varietal and then judged against each other! This makes it darn hard to bring home a metal but really exciting when you do! There could be 50 wines entered into one category but only 1 wine will earn each of the metals (in some cases there are ties). Wines that came very close to winning a metal are awarded ‘judge’s pick’ to acknowledge that the judges truly loved them but just didn’t have room for them on the podium. 

Here’s what Sip Northwest had to say about ‘Best of the Northwest’…

“An open call for submissions last spring drafted 667 wines, 282 beers, 145 spirits and 145 ciders that were sampled blind and judged by nearly 100 leading beverage experts, from master sommeliers and cicerones to certified spirit judges and cider buyers, who determined the top four in each respective beverage category.

The tastings led to an all-inclusive, encyclopedic catalog of winners that now have a proven track record of greatness and are splayed out on the pages of the fall print issue, with tasting notes, price tags and more.”

We submitted 4 wines and all 4 came home with top honors! Here’s a link to the full list of awards at Sip Northwest.

 

2015 Petite Sirah, Columbia Valley

 

2017 Albariño, Crawford Vineyard, Yakima Valley

 

2016 Merlot, Lewis-Clark Valley

 

2016 Malbec, Verhey Vineyard, Rattlesnake Hills

All of these wines mentioned above are still available with the exception of the 2017 Albariño! No worries though, our 2018 Albariño is settling in the tank right now!