Smoky Hill Vineyards and Winery has received notice that three of three wines submitted into the Grand Harvest Awards wine competition have received silver medals.

 The Grand Harvest Awards, an international wine competition based in Santa Rosa, California, is the only wine-judging event in North America that recognizes terroir, a group of vines or vineyards from the same region, sharing the same type of weather and soil conditions, and belonging to the same appellation (appellation is a geographical-based term used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown.) 

Competing with wines from California to France, Australia to Georgia,  Smoky Hill Vineyards & Winery’s winemaker, Norm Jennings, received silver medals for his 2006 Norton, a varietal dry red wine; River Valley Red, a sweet red wine crafted from Concord grapes; and Sweet Lady, a sweet wine made from Catawba grapes. All three grape varieties are grown at the Salina vineyards or purchased from Kansas grape growers. 

Over 1700 entries were received and judged in a format that requiring all judges to agree upon the award winning wines. The panel of judges represent  professionals from the wine industry fields of production, marketing and education. To see the complete field of winners and read about the competition, click here.

Norm Jennings is a third generation winemaker, taking over winemaking duties in 2005 after the death of his father, Steve Jennings, the founder of Smoky Hill Vineyards and Winery.  Located north of Salina, Jennings crafts nearly two dozen wines, and cares for over 6000 vines. Smoky Hill Vineyards & Winery is Kansas’ largest grape producing vineyard and winery, producing wine since 1995.