At the 2026 Hudson Valley Wine & Spirits Competition (HVWSC) last month in Rhinebeck, the event immediately took on an elegiac quality before the first wine was even poured. Longtime organizer Debbie Gioquindo kicked off the event by announcing that the 2026 iteration would actually be the final one (after 18 years of competitions), owing to lack of support from local producers. Having followed, written about and, yes, judged Hudson River Region (HRR) wines, spirits, and ciders for two decades, I absorbed the news as an early morning gut-punch. The response from assembled judges, many of them veterans of this Hudson Valley competition – as well as supportive of the local wine scene — was feisty, and not considered the last word on the matter.
Time will tell. There is, of course, intense competition for such wine contests across the country, including the Big Kahuna of the New York wine industry, the NY Wine Classic. But being a smaller region in the New York wine context, and given the clear quality strides made in HRR wines in recent decades, it would seem prudent to celebrate and acknowledge that excellence locally, because the (much) larger NY wine regions of the Finger Lakes and Long Island can easily drown out/subsume the HRR. Hang together or hang separately, as the saying goes.
The usual suspects
Despite the initial bad news, the show went on, with fewer entries than in the past, but with good overall quality, and excellence among the winning wines, mostly from flagship HRR producers, especially Whitecliff Vineyard & Winery and Benmarl Winery.
The standout wine of the competition was clearly Whitecliff’s 2023 Cabernet Franc, winning not only Best Red, Best Cabernet Franc (Signature Grape of the Hudson Valley), and Best Overall Hudson Valley Wine (Made with Hudson Valley Fruit), but also Best in Show. With great varietal (briar fruit) character and snappy energy, the wine was an outstanding reflection of premier terroir – from Whitecliff’s “Olana Vineyard”, located on the steep east bank of the Hudson River, directly below Frederic Church’s historic Olana residence.
Benmarl took home the Winery of the Year award, not least by winning Best Sparkling for its 2025 Pétillant Naturel of Cabernet Franc, and Best Rosé for its 2025 Rosé (55% Cab Franc, 45% Merlot). For the record, the Benmarl sparkler was runner-up for the Best in Show accolade, and an exceedingly drinkable achievement.
Rounding out the top wines, Fjord Vineyards’ 2025 Estate Albariño garnered Best White, and City Winery’s 2024 Vin d’Glacier (Ice Wine: 100% Riesling) took Best Dessert Wine.
From my panel of judges, we had no top winners, nor any Double Golds (i.e. unanimous gold determinations from the entire panel), but there were some noteworthy wines, including Rosina Winery’s gold medal-winning 2022 Amber (an “orange wine” – white grapes with extended skin contact); Millbrook Vinyard and Winery’s 2025 Hunt Country Rosé (gold); and Fjord Vinyards’ 2024 Cabernet Franc (gold).
As for the HRR’s signature grape, Cabernet Franc, of the 18 HVWSCs that have been held to date, a Cab Franc-based wine has won Best Red 15 times – an 84% win-rate that is certainly no accident! It has also factored into some rosé and sparkling winners in recent years, too. The “signature” is time-tested and legit.
The full results of the 2026 competition can be found here.
A huge thanks to Debbie Gioquindo for her herculean organizational efforts over the years, and here’s hoping that the HV competition finds a way forward in the future.
Cheers!
