Dallas at Sunset (Stephen Finn | Dreamstime.com)

Wine professionals will want to mark their calendars for February 16th and 17th, when the 25th Annual Dallas Morning News Wine Competition will be held at the Dallas Convention Center.

The Competition is the largest U.S. commercial wine competition outside California, and the fourth largest in the United States. It includes a renowned panel of national and international judges who will award gold, silver, and bronze medals to winning wines in over 250 categories.

The award-winning wines of the Competition will be showcased in SALUT!, a special publication of the Dallas Morning News this April. Winelovers will be able to sample the winning wines during the Dallas Wine and Food Festival running from April 22nd to the 26th in 2009.

The Wine Competition was founded in 1985 by Rebecca Murphy, the first female wine steward in Texas and now a wine consultant, educator and freelance wine journalist with a weekly column in the Dallas Morning News.

“The Dallas competition is bigger and more impactful than ever,” says Murphy who credits the caliber of the judges and the direct impact a medal has on sales in the important Texas market as the prime reasons for winery participation. “A wine with a Dallas Morning News Wine Competition medal carries national credibility and inspires confidence in retailers and consumers.”

To register for the event go to: 25th Annual Dallas Morning News Wine Competition