The 2011 competition will be the 27th year of The Dallas Morning News Wine Competition. The first competition was held in March of 1985 at the Hyatt Regency Dallas. That first year we invited 15 judges to evaluate the 570 entries we received. For our first 14 years the competition was open only to wines that produced in the United States. In 1999 we opened the competition to wines produced in all wine regions of the world. That year we received 1,783 entries. For the 2009 competition we received 3,146 entries from 28 states and 18 countries. This number was lower than the entries we received in 2008, but considering the economy, we were delighted with the number of entries.

Over the years we have developed an eager following of the results, especially in north central Texas. It did not happen overnight. We have always printed a listing of the award winning wines, but the first four years of the competition was just a list. The first special section of the award winning wines distributed in the newspaper was in 1989. Readers of The Dallas Morning News make the publication listing the award winning wines their buying guide for months after its release. Retailers and restaurateurs buy and promote the award winning wines.