By Ron Saikowski Wine Walk November 27, 2024

Texas Wineries earned 590 Medals at the recent Blind Judging of the Houston Rodeo Uncorked International Wine Competition held at the NRG Center.

There were 2,876 entries from 20 countries with Texas representing 19.4% of those entries that were judged blindly by multiple panels of judges during the weekend of November 15th-17th, 2024. These wines were judged blindly with rigid procedures to ensure the wines were being tasted and judged without any hint of which wines were being evaluated. Wines are poured in one room in numbered glasses placed on carts which are taken by a different person to the Judges in various rooms so nobody knows what they are tasting.

See the list of winners at the Houston Rodeo Uncorked International Wine Competition site. 

The Judges tally their scores individually which are then provided to an independent auditing firm to tally the results. The results were then converted from numbers to the names of the wineries and the respective wine so complete anonymity is provided in establishing the result. The wines judged earlier this month will be the featured wines at the 2025 Houston Rodeo Uncorked, being the 22nd annual wine extravaganza at the world’s largest livestock show and rodeo!

The Houston Rodeo Uncorked 2025 Grand Champion Wine was Champagne Bollinger Special Cuvee Brut with the Reserve Grand Champion being Markham Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, 2021.

The 2025 Rodeo Uncorked Champions will be featured at Houston Rodeo Uncorked Events in 2025, hence they are called the 2025 Champions. BEST BITES will be held on Sunday February 23, 2025, Wine Dinner and Auction on Sunday, March 2, 2025, and featured daily in the Champion Wine Gardens during the 2025 Houston Rodeo.

The top Texas Wines at the 2024 wine judging included:
•    Top Texas Wine – Peters Prairie Vineyard Barbera, Texas Hill Country 2019
•    Top Dessert Wine –Llano Estacado Winery Mad Ira’s from the Texas High Plains
•    Top All Around Winery – Nice Winery of Houston earning 58 medals
•    Top Texas Winery – Kiepersol

By the way, Texas Wineries earned a total of 27 Double Gold Medals, 94 Gold Medals, 358 Silver Medals, and 11 Bronze Medals. The judged quality of Texas wines is definitely improving as the Texas wine industry ages, becoming more knowledgeable and quality oriented. 

Ron Saikowski may be reached at rsaikowski@comcast.net. 

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