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The Winery at Kirkwood Wins International and Local Awards

By July 30, 2014January 4th, 2019No Comments

Kirkwood’s Winemaker and Vineyard Operations Manager, Lucas McIntire, with the college’s wines

The Winery at Kirkwood’s sparkling wine, La Madeliina, recently won a Silver Award in the Sparkling Category at the Tasters Guild 27th Annual International Wine Judging event. Two thousand wines from eight countries and 37 states competed in this event.

Lucas McIntire, The Winery at Kirkwood’s vintner, named La Madeliina as a cross between the La Crescent and Adalmiina grapes used in the sparkling wine and his daughter, Madeleine. “It was really exciting to see our traditional method bubbly take these kind of honors on an international level”, McIntire says.

The Winery at Kirkwood also submitted their full line of available wines to the Iowa State Fair Commercial Wine Competition, open to commercial Iowa wineries only. A blind panel of experienced judges privately evaluated each wine on July 13, awarding Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to the wines, with Double Gold awards given to unanimous gold medal winners.

The Winery at Kirkwood’s 2013 Frontenac Gris won one of only two Double Gold medals awarded at the competition.

In addition, the vineyard’s Cellar Achievement earned a Silver award, while its Edelweiss, Master’s Cuveé, Four Point Oh! and Frontenac Dessert wines all received Bronze medals.

The Frontenac Gris will be available for sampling at the Cultural Center, just a short walk away from the college’s booth in the Varied Industries building, for the full run of the Iowa State Fair this year, from August 7–17.

 

Click here to see KCRG’s local news coverage on this story.