Wine Competition Awards Double Gold To Envelope

Praising its structure, balance and considerable aging potential, judges at the Pacific Coast International Wine Competition awarded a double gold medal Tuesday to a No. 10 business envelope containing a $195 entry fee, sources confirmed.

The envelope, submitted by a Lodi producer that has since stopped returning calls, advanced through three rounds of blind evaluation before taking Best of Class in the $25–$40 red category.

“I’ll be honest with you, this was one of the more complete expressions we saw all week, and I’ve been on this panel since 2009,” said chief judge Marguerite Feltz, who described the entry as showing well on the mid-palate and free of any perceptible flaw, adding that two judges had raised concerns during flight four before withdrawing them. “There was some disagreement about whether it was varietally correct. But you put it next to the rest of that bracket and it’s simply cleaner. Nothing else in the flight had a finish anywhere close. We scored it 94 and we stand behind 94.”

Competition organizers said the result reflects a judging protocol refined over 31 years and noted that all entries are stripped of identifying information before evaluation.

At press time, the competition had added a Best of Show trophy for administrative submissions and raised the entry fee to $240.