Feb. 20, 2015, Healdsburg, CA – “The Consumer Wine Awards is a unique blend of consumer-centric wine competition and research project,” says George Christie, President of Wine Industry Network (WIN). “It challenges the traditional approach of wine judging and opens untapped marketing opportunities for wine producers.”
Entering its 7th year, the Consumer Wine Awards (CWA) is moving to Sacramento, CA, and the evaluation will take place on April 11th. Christie will join the CWA advisory board along with famed wine expert Darrell Corti, Sacramento Convention & Visitor’s Bureau and Visit Sacramento CEO, Michael Testa, chef Michael Tuohy, and social media expert, Christine Hinckly Trice.
“The mission of the Consumer Wine Awards is to offer a peer-to-peer recommendation alternative to the ‘expert opinions’ that are so often out of sync with wine lover preferences,” says Tim Hanni MW, co-founding partner of CWA. “When judged by everyday wine lovers, wines from every state – representing every imaginable flavor and style – win awards. These are the wines that trained experts and critics ignore or dismiss, but our program offers a great means to rise above the ‘tyranny of the minority’ that focuses on a tiny number of wine regions and styles.”
Approximately 200 consumers will be “Wine Judges for a Day” evaluating 800-1,000 wines. The diversity of wines, representing every imaginable style and flavor category, are submitted from all over the US and abroad. The panels of Consumer Evaluators are grouped based on their wine preferences so that each panel judges the type of wine they enjoy and purchase. This year, the addition of seminars during the event day will provide an additional draw those who wish to participate.
As part of a new partnership with the Sacramento Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, 4,000 wine loving consumers are expected to attend the Awards Ceremony, being held on June 6th during the Grape Escape and CWA Awards. Nearly 100 wineries will be pouring and showcasing CWA award winning wines.
“Innovation in the wine industry continues to help reach new consumers,” says Christie. “We will work with the CWA team on their consumer research projects to communicate the valuable data they collect and explain what it means to the wine industry.”
The Consumer Wine Awards are now open for wine submissions and consumer “Wine Judge for a Day” applications. Visit www.consumerwineawards.com for more details, contact Tim Hanni MW, tim@timhanni.com or (707)337-0327.
About the Wine Industry Network (WIN)
Based in Healdsburg, California, WineIndustryNetwork.com is the wine industry’s most comprehensive business resource websites operating as an on-line trade show and created specifically to help industry professionals locate and connect more easily with the industry’s best suppliers and service professionals. WIN also produces The North Coast Wine Industry Expo www.wineindustryexpo.com, based in Santa Rosa, California, and the online industry publication, the Wine Industry Advisor.
About the Consumer Wine Awards (CWA)
The mission of the Consumer Wine Awards is celebrating the diversity of both the wines of the world and the diversity of the people who love wine. The CWA premise is that there is often an inverse relationship between the wines favored by trained wine experts and wine judges in traditional competitions and the wines that are cherished and sought after by every-day wine lovers. The CWA format was created by Master of Wine and sensory specialist Tim Hanni MW, G.M “Pooch” Pucilowski, who ran the California State Wine competition for 25 years, and Aaron Kidder, proprietor of Kidder Family Winery and also a software and IT specialist. Chris Cutler, a technology, wine marketing and social media specialist, joined the team in 2014. The Consumer Wine Awards also provides a foundation for conducting formal wine consumer research projects that are at the core of both their methods for assessing the wine as well as creating innovative ways to segment the wine market and promote wine enjoyment on a personal level.
