FORESTVILLE, NY (April 25, 2011) - Merritt Estate Winery recently participated in the Pacific Rim Wine Competition, held at the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino, California. The local winery proved again that New York wines are worthy of national recognition.

            This is the 26^th year for the Pacific Rim Wine Competition, a two-day event held every April. Each year, 30 wine professionals gather to conduct a blind tasting and judging of around 2,000 wines. Originally, the competition focused only on wines from countries that bordered the Pacific Rim. However, the rules were recently reformatted to include wines of the world in an effort to introduce many more quality wines in to the market.

The competition awards an overall Grand Champion, Best Sparkling, Red, Rose, White and Dessert wine and a Best of Class in each of the previously listed wine classes. Gold, silver and bronze medals are also awarded in addition to the numerous distinction awards. The competition is unique in its offering of a Label Competition in which gold, silver and bronze awards in categories including Most Unique Label, Best Label Series and Best Individual Label are determined.

            Merritt Estate Winery took two awards in the competition. Bella Ice, a sweet red wine with intense Concord grape flavor, won a Silver medal in the red ice wine category. Edelweiss, a sweet and fruity white wine with a flowery aroma and fresh grape taste, won Best of Class in the other white blends category.

            "Our Bella Rosa does well in almost any competition we enter it in to, and while we love seeing those consistent results, we like to shake things up a little bit too," said Jessi Luke, Public Relations and Promotions for Merritt Estate Winery. "This time we changed things up and sent our Edelweiss, still a sweet wine but across the spectrum from Bella Rosa, and we couldn't be happier with the outcome. New York wines are more than just Concord and this helps to represent that."

For more information on Merritt news and events, visit www.merrittestatewinery.com or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/merrittwinery.

Merritt Estate is located in America's Grape Country, the largest grape growing region of New York State located along the shores of Lake Erie. The grapes and wines produced under Merritt rival the quality of premium vintages throughout the world.