The producers of the annual TEXSOM conference, considered by many to be the most prominent and influential wine trade education conference in the U.S., are the force behind TEXSOM International Wine Awards (TIWA). In 2019, TIWA garnered more than 3,200 entries representing 29 countries and 19 states, a record for the competition. Due to this competition’s influence among the world’s top buyers, the OWB is working to support the expansion of Oregon’s presence by offering a free shipping program for Oregon producers.
ACT NOW: Thanks to a generous sponsorship from FedEx, the Oregon Wine Board is offering free ground shipping of up to one case of wine (12 bottles) to the TEXSOM International Wine Awards. Learn more.
Why submit your wines to be judged at the TEXSOM International Wine Awards?
1. Expose Your Brand to the Wine Industry’s Top Influencers
The TEXSOM Conference, going into its 15th year, occurs every August at the Four Seasons Las Colinas Resort outside Dallas, Texas. In 2019, the three day conference drew in 1,200 attendees from 38 states and 15 countries. By submitting your wines to be judged at TIWA, they could also be featured at the TEXSOM conference in August for free. High scoring wines will often be poured at walk-around tastings or, in rare and lucky cases, be included in a flight at one of the conference master classes.
In 2018, many Southern Oregon wines took advantage of the OWB free shipping program resulting in a significant increase in wine submissions to the competition and, thus, more awarded Southern Oregon wines. TEXSOM organizers were so impressed by the quality of wines coming from this emerging region that they decided to offer a master class on Southern Oregon taught by Liz Thach MW at the conference. The session featured 8 Southern Oregon wines from across the region and was delivered to a standing-room only audience of approximately 120 trade and industry members. TEXSOM organizers are adamant about keeping the master class education at the conference independent and free from sponsor influence so it was a great honor and opportunity to be prominently featured at the conference.
2. Your Wine Will be Judged Consistently By Professionals
There are nearly 100 active competitions in the United States alone. TIWA stands apart from the crowd by employing 63 judges from six different countries to evaluate the wines. More than half of the panel is comprised of Master Sommeliers and Masters of Wine and the remainder consists of longtime industry professionals including winemakers, journalists, educators, buyers and importers. In fact, the Journal of Wine Economics published an article singling out TIWA, proposing that the competition’s evaluative methods are far more detailed and rigorous than is typical for other competitions.
In the study, TIWA proved to be the most reliable competition in identifying high quality wines with 58.3% of gold medal winning wines also receiving 90+ score averages from Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator. By comparison, this value ranges from 7.7% to 43.8% for the other nine competitions evaluated. Impressively, TIWA was the only competition whose gold medal wines received an average score of 90 points from wine critics. These results reflect TIWA’s high standards for their judges and evaluation methods.
Evaluated wines are awarded bronze, silver and gold medals along with special designations such as Judges Selection Award. Poor wine scores are not published.
3. The OWB Will Pay For Your Shipping
Thanks to a generous sponsorship from FedEx, the Oregon Wine Board is offering free ground shipping of up to one case of wine (12 bottles) to the TEXSOM International Wine Awards. Learn more.
In 2019, Oregon saw a 13% increase in award-winning wines. Let’s work together to keep that momentum going!
