The Oregon Chardonnay Celebration is an annual celebration of all things Oregon Chardonnay. Each year, approximately 60 wineries and their still and sparkling wines participate in the event. Featured wineries represent a combination of first-time attendees and past participants.
All wineries must pass through a rigorous, double-blind tasting panel made up of industry experts. Our tasting panel changes each year and is made up of winemakers, sommeliers, wine buyers, and industry leaders. We seek to curate a broad sampling of professionals who represent all aspects of the wine business. There are limited spots for new participants every year.
Once a winery and wine have been accepted by the tasting panel, they become rotation-eligible. This means they do not have to submit wines to the tasting panel and will be invited to participate in OCC on a rotating basis based on past participation history.
TIMELINE
SEPTEMBER
Wineries that have not previously participated in OCC or who have had a change in winemaker since they last participated are invited to submit samples to be considered by that year’s tasting panel. To learn more and find our submission form, please read through our submission guidelines.
OCTOBER
Our tasting panel will gather to taste through all submissions for the year. Our tasting panel is comprised of a different group of at least six (6) industry professionals each year. Our panelists taste through all of the Chardonnay submissions double blind. All wines are scores, tallied, and discussed by the group. After each wine is tasted, the flights are re-arranged and wines are tasted again, in a different order.
Members of the OCC staff collect the scores and, based on the number of available spots for new participants, admit in the top scoring wines. Panelists are told which wines have tasted into the event but are not aware of which brands and which wines do not taste-in.
NOVEMBER
Invitations to participate in OCC are sent out to rotation-eligible wineries as well as those that have tasted into the event in November.
The full list of participating wineries is announced in December or January.
REQUEST TO BE NOTIFIED ABOUT THE NEXT SUBMISSION PROCESS
Please note, filling out this form is not a submission to taste into OCC. You will be notified as soon as the next submission process is beginning.