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Owl Creek's Bald Knob wine takes best of show for Illinois

July 7, 2006

Bald Knob, Owl Creek Vineyard's latest award-winning wine took “Best of Show” in the 2006 Illinois Wine Competition held in Springfield last week. The competition judges Illinois' wine offerings to determine the top quality wines across the state in over a dozen categories.

Illinois wineries submitted 256 entries in the three-day judging sponsored by the Illinois Grape Growers & Vintner's Association and the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

In addition to Bald Knob's Best of Show, Owl Creek's Raspberry Framboise took a Silver medal for fruit wines, Owl's Leap 2003 earned a Silver in the Chambourcin red wine category, Whooo's Blush 2005 was given a Bronze among blush wines, ChardonOwl 2005 a Bronze for Chardonel varietal white wines, and the Water Valley White a bronze for Niagara white wines.

“We are very pleased and inspired by the outcome,” said Brad Genung, owner of Owl Creek. “Bald Knob is named for our founder Ted Wichmann and is the first entirely new wine created by winemaker Karen Hand since Ted retired last year.”

Bald Knob is a fruity semi-dry red wine created from Chambourcin grapes and finished in a manner similar to a young Beaujolais. The grapes for Bald Knob, Owl's Leap, Whooo's Blush and ChardonOwl were grown by Frank & Linda LaFoon of Anna. The LaFoons have been growing great Chambourcin and Chardonel grapes for Owl Creek wines for many years.

“My wife and I love a little word play, so Bald Knob is named for the highest point in Southern Illinois – Bald Knob Cross – and the highest point on Ted's head,” quipped Genung. “It's a fun nod to the great terroir that makes Shawnee Hills Chambourcin possible and the decade plus of toil and passion Ted dedicated to creating great Illinois wines.”

Bald Knob, Owl's Leap, ChardonOwl, Whooo's Blush, Water Valley White and Raspberry Framboise are available at many of Owl Creek's 70 retailers from Metropolis to Chicago through a partnership with Hamburg Distributing and Union Beverage.