Dave Nelson said:

FWIW, within the wine industry it is normal practice to hold the threshold
for issuing an award down at the level of getting the liquid into the
bottle. The Orange County fair for instance, used to have over 1000 wines
present and the wines that did not receive at least a bronze medal award
could be counted on one hand [shudder].

This is very true. My father-in-law used to work for Italian Swiss
Colonies' ad agency, and the Calif. State Fair gave awards based on volume
categories; the top volume included only Gallo and Italian Swiss, so they
divided all the awards, and could claim to be "award winning" with complete
truth. As a wine fancier himself, he found this highly amusing.
But at least those giant wine concerns shipped by rail.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2942 Linden Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 http://www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@signaturepress.com
Publishers of books on railroads and on Western history