The Loudoun Wineries Association (LWA) has established a Loudoun Wine Awards Program this summer to recognize the county's high-quality wines and the extensive work of the local winemakers.

The program will culminate with a Wine Awards Reception at West Belmont Place at the National Conference Center, featuring the presentation and tasting of award-winning wines and a dinner buffet on September 3, 2015 to help kick-off Epicurience Virginia Weekend. The reception is open to the public at $60 per person and will provide a wonderful opportunity to sample Loudoun's best wines.

"Our goal is to showcase the breadth and depth of quality of Loudoun County wines while providing an opportunity for ongoing quality improvement", said Mark Fedor, Chair of the LWA Board and co-owner/winemaker of North Gate Vineyard. "This program achieves that goal in a unique way combining winemaker education and the perspective of wine consumers with traditional professional wine evaluation."

The program includes a two-part judging format that provides an educational element for county winemakers while including the public in the selection of the top wines. The first part is the Winemakers' Evaluation round where winemaker panels will determine which wines go to the final Medal Round. The winemaker round will be moderated by internationally renowned enologist, Bruce Zoecklein and wines will be discussed from the standpoint of how they could be improved in future bottlings.

Part two will be the Medal Round. In this round, combined panels of both wine consumers and professional judges will score the wines. The consumer judges will be drawn from the public solicited by the wineries and event sponsors. The wine scores will be used to determine the medal winning wines.

The awards to be presented include: Chairman's Grand Award (top scoring wine); Chairman's Reserve Award (top scoring 100% Loudoun County grape-produced wine); Gold medals and Silver medals. In addition, Best of Category awards will be given.

The wines recognized in this program will serve as the basis for public exposure in Epicurience Virginia, The Wine Tourism Conference coming to Loudoun County in November 2015, and other county public events during the course of the year.

The Loudoun Wine Awards Program is envisioned as an annual event in the county's future.

"This will continue to strengthen our wine tourism product," Visit Loudoun President & CEO Beth Erickson said. "We look forward to joining with additional partners and sponsors from the Loudoun business community in this worthy endeavor."

The LWA is a non-profit trade organization representing Loudoun County wineries. Its mission is to enable the success of the Loudoun County wine industry by promoting agriculture, social stewardship and by facilitating marketing, legislation, education, and communications between member wineries and their partners.

The LWA works with partnerships, creates cooperative opportunities, and integrates with other rural economy sectors in Loudoun to positively influence the Loudoun Wine industry.