» View 2008 Food-Wine Pairing Competition Winners

For 2008 the Mid-American Wine Competition is implementing a Food-Wine Pairing Judging.  This is the first competition in the United States to judge how wine compares with food.  Traditionally, competitions judge a series of wines from the same category; essentially, the wine is evaluated in the context of other wines.  While the MAWC will continue the traditional wine competition, it will also implement the Food-Wine Pairing Judging so that wines can be evaluated based on their synergism with food.  After all, the style of wine that is recognized in a traditional competition may be different from the style of wine that perfectly matches one of the dishes listed below.

Since 2008 is the first year for the Food-Wine Pairing Judging, entries will be limited to Iowa wineries.  As such, the Food-Wine Pairing portion of the MAWC will remain small for the inaugural year thereby allowing the procedure to be perfected.  It is the hope of the competition to open this portion of the competition to all wineries in the upper Midwest for 2009.

The dishes will be prepared by Executive Chef Lorie Dowie of the Iowa Culinary Institute (ICI) located at DMACC.  At the time of accredidation, Chef Lori was the youngest certified executive chef in the country, and the first female certified in Iowa.  The Program Chair/Executive Chef Robert Anderson recently received the 2008 American Culinary Federation distinction of Chef Educator of the Year, Central Region.  In addition, ICI has coordinated the French Chef Exchange program for 23 years making it one of the longest running relationships in the United States.  ICI has designed the following recipes:

Category 301   Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Category 302   Fresh Water Shrimp Wrapped in Potato
Category 303   Grilled Salmon with Lemon and Olive Oil
Category 304   Rack of Lamb with Mustard and Hazelnuts
Category 305   Ceviche
Category 306   Red Snapper Veracruz
Category 307   Saw Dust Pudding
Category 308   Nut Torte

These categories will be limited to just 12 wines per dish.  As such, Iowa wineries will need to reserve a spot in the Food-Wine Pairing portion of the MAWC by contacting winecompetition@dmacc.edu or Bob Foster, Competition Director, at rfoster2@san.rr.com. Wine entries for the traditional style competition do not require reservations.

An entry for just the Food-Wine Pairing portion of MAWC will consist of 2 (two) bottles regardless of volume.  The fee will be $25 per entry.  Thus, a winery entering two wines should send 2 bottles of each (4 bottles total) and $50.  As stated above, wines in the wine-food pairing portion need to have a reservation before the entry is mailed. A winery may enter a wine in just the Food-Wine Pairing judging, the traditional competition, or both.  If entering a wine in both portions of the competition a winery should send 6 bottles of wine and $65.