2017 Jefferson Cup Awards

We’re pleased to announce four of our wines were awarded medals at this year’s Jefferson Cup Invitational! Two vintages of Signature Red, the latest Chardonel release, and the already-sold-out latest Blackberry. 

Kansas City, Missouri – The Jefferson Cup Invitational has celebrated its eighteenth year as the only competition that honors the best of the best among wineries from all of America’s wine regions. Each year we select great wines from across America; the 2017 competition included wines from twenty-seven states. At the end of the second day of this year’s tasting, November 17, 2017 wines from NINE different states had captured top honors. Just as the event’s namesake would have it, democracy reigned at this year’s Jefferson Cup Wine Competition.
The two-day competition culminated with the awarding of sixteen Jefferson Cup Trophies. Jefferson Cups were awarded to wines made from both vinifera vines (the European species responsible for more famous wines such as Chardonnay and Cabernet) and non-vinifera vines, which flourish in the more extreme climates in the U.S.
These sixteen prestigious Jefferson Cups, the Sweepstakes Awards for our competition, were awarded to seven white wines, five red wines, one rosé wine, one mead and two dessert wines. “While many competitions insist upon selecting a pre-ordained number of sweepstakes winners, our judges are allowed to find the top wines, whether there are only one, two or three, or even NO winners in some categories, as happened this year,” says Jefferson Cup Invitational founder Doug Frost. “Last year we had a fruit wine and a muscadine based wine as winners, and this year saw a rosé and a mead. There were once again great examples of wine, both from vinifera and non- vinifera grapes.” Together with forty-six other Jefferson Cup nominated wines, these sixteen wines represent some of the most compelling wines made in America.
Although many expect California to dominate the awards, Jefferson Cups were won by eight other states as well: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, New York and, for the first time ever, Maine. The Jefferson Cup nominees, all Double Gold recipients, included wines from thirteen different states. And while there is no quota for non-vinifera wines in the Jefferson Cup finals, with both red wines and white wines, the number of vinifera and non-vinifera wines among the nominees was virtually identical.
Many people have begun to call the Jefferson Cup Invitational, the “Olympics” of wine competitions. This competition is not open to every winery willing to submit an entrance fee. Rather we select the best of the best, culled from tastings and competitions in America throughout 2017. The Jefferson Cup Invitational was founded in 1999 in honor of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson fathered our constitution, helped champion the international concept of human rights and was a seminal figure in America’s cultural, culinary (including wine) and agricultural history.