One of the main events at the festival will be the Mother of All Vinegar Contest. We are inviting your company to send in as many entries as you would like. You will need to send in at least two bottles of vinegar for each category you wish to enter.

We have already received some very nice press on this event. Newspapers as far away as Canada and even books have included us on their calendar of unique events to experience in 2004. And though it usually takes a few years before these kind of events really take off, we had a lot of fun last year and we expect quite a bit more excitement this year.

The contest works like this. Each vinegar is given a number and a bit of it is poured into a small clear vessel with a corresponding number. The vinegar are separated into the categories fruit, grain, other, flavored and decorated. After all of the vinegars are set up, our panel of judges, selected from chefs, food writers and consumers are led into the room. They are then left to taste each vinegar. The judges award up to 5 points for presentation, up to 10 for appearance, up to 25 for aroma, up to 20 for body/bite, up to 25 for taste, and up to 15 for after taste. The points are then totaled and awards given for each category and the “Mother of All Vinegars” As you know, there are not a lot of competitions for vinegar, so I don’t think I have to tell you what winning this award for your vinegar could do for your promotional efforts. And these kind of contests are unique enough to be worth being associated with even if you don’t win.

Since there are a lot of expenses associated with putting on an event of this kind, we are asking a modest fee of $50 for each vinegar you enter. You will definitely benefit from participating in the festival and the contest.

We also hope your company will also consider being one of the sponsors of the International Vinegar Festival. A sponsorship, which should be tax deductible as a promotional expense, would help raise the awareness of the wonderful world of vinegar.

Since Vinegar is your business, this is your festival also. We hope you will send your vinegars. We hope you will come. We hope you will tell your friends and business associates. This event will really grow and you will certainly want to be a part of it.

Click here to get a PDF of the Mother Of All Vinegar Contest application. You will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat Reader to open this file.