The 2011 Debuts and Discoveries showcased the newer Washington wineries. A team of wine writers, wine buyers and sommeliers served as the judging panel. Instead of evaluating individual wines, the judges were asked to rank the wineries as a whole. Three of the Wine Beer Washington writers were included in this years’ judging panel. We could only evaluate the wines being poured at the event so we considered not only the quality of the wines but their quality price ratio (QPR), packaging and service staff in ranking wineries.

Judge Awards

  1. Cairdeas Winery
  2. AniChe Cellars
  3. Icon Cellars

Cairdeas Winery: Charlie and Lacey Lybecker

Seattle Uncorked just announced the Peoples’ Choice winners. All the participants attending Debuts and Discoveries were given a ballot and asked to select their favorite winery of the night. Here are their choices.

Peoples’ Choice

  1. Kerloo Cellars
  2. Pandora Cellars
  3. Cairdeas Winery / Purple Star Wines

Congratulations to Cairdeas Winery the only Washington winery that received recognition from both the judging panel and the general audience!

Look for more of our thought on the new wineries to watch for and which of their wines to try first later this weekend.

 

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