The 35 candidates up for “top value” wine at Rodeo Uncorked!, all priced $15 or less.

Livestock exhibits, bull riding, barbecue and concerts are longtime staples of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Over the past two decades, wine also has carved out a significant role for itself at the exposition, with about 80,000 bottles opened in the show’s wine garden during this year’s nearly month-long run.

As prelude to next year’s show, with an eye to stocking that garden with exceptional wines, sponsors recently conducted Rodeo Uncorked!, an international wine competition that drew about 3,000 entries.

The vetting at Houston differs in several respects from most wine competitions. The opening field is patiently whittled to 60 wines to be evaluated for the top awards in the final round of the final day, 15 in each of four categories – red, white, sparkling, dessert. To avoid palate fatigue, judges are staggered over the three days, with few sitting on panels more than two days. Long gaps are scheduled between sessions, and the menu to help judges revive their palates is the most diverse and comprehensive on the wine-competition circuit. And Rodeo Uncorked! may be the last competition in the country to seat five-person panels, providing a wide range of views – and more debate than generated by more common three-person panels. A typical panel will include a winemaker, a sommelier, a retailer, a wine educator and a wine writer.

For the record, this year’s top two winners were the Beau Joie Brut Champagne (around $50), a blend of 50 percent Chardonnay, 40 percent Pinot Noir, and 10 percent Pinot Meunier, the Grand Champion, and the precise, elegant and terroir-focused Smith-Madrone 2018 Spring Mountain District Riesling ($36), the Reserve Grand Champion. (In accord with livestock-show tradition, Rodeo Uncorked! designates a grand champion and a reserve grand champion, or runner-up.)

Judges take a break, catching up on messages (cell phones aren’t to be out as panelists deliberate), overlooking the abandoned and decaying Astrodome.

I joined panels for deliberations on several enticing classes and semi-finals. Highlights:

Best Value Wine

We weighed in on 35 contenders, all priced $15 or less, all ranked high in initial opening rounds. Several contenders came from classes where their competitors could have been priced up to $28, $38 and even $55.

Our overall favorite was the spunky and sharp Animus 2022 Vinho Verde (customarily $8 to $12). With grace and verve, it did just what Vinho Verde is expected to do – provide fleeting and delicate peach fruit framed with a limber build, perky acidity and notes of sweetness, spritz and spice. It’s a blend of two traditional Portuguese grape varieties, Louriero and Arinto.

While I ranked the Animus high, I ranked another contender for best value higher. My overall favorite was the spirited, peppery and complex Hahn Family Wines 2021 California GSM ($15), a vivaciously balanced blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. Hahn is a longtime Central Coast producer acquired earlier this year by E&J Gallo. Hahn’s website suggests that the wine be paired with portobello chipotle tacos.

Another personal favorite was the bright and steely Albert Bichot 2021 Horizon de Pichot Vin de France Pinot Noir ($15), which while not Burgundy in weight, layering or persistence nonetheless spoke charmingly to the sunniness and earthiness of the region.

The most surprising entries to see in the value lineup were two sakes, both superb, though as I completed my ballot I leaned to the precise, stable and refreshing Gekkeikan Cap Ace Junmai Shu Sake Kyoto Prefecture ($5 for 180-milliliter single-serving bottles). If you have been waiting to dip into the world of sake, the Cap Ace offers a congenial and lively introduction at a bargain price. (Two other sakes were among 44 wines competing in the white-wine semi-finals to advance to the final round, also both commendable, the Sho Chiku Bai Shirakabegura Kimoto Junmai ($30), whose combination of fruity and savory flavors was so transcendent any formal tasting note should be written as a haiku; and the delicately sweet, spicy and long Kasumi Tsura Kimoto Extra Dry ($27).

Chardonnay

Early on the first day of the competition our panel was assigned the class of Chardonnay priced $22 to $25, the country’s most popular varietal wine in one of its more popular price niches. We had 21 of them. Just two won gold. One was our class champion, the robust and high-toned Chemistry 2022 Oregon Chardonnay ($25), its pointed citric fruit well integrated with oak. Chemistry is a brand of Stoller Wine Group in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, though fruit for this Chardonnay was drawn from several Oregon areas. The other was our reserve grand champion, the slim, sleek, finely sweet and subtly creamy Napa Cellars 2022 Napa County Chardonnay ($22).

I thought two other Chardonnays deserved gold, but couldn’t persuade the panel to give them more than a silver. Perhaps they betrayed my fondness for Chardonnay from Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley, though we knew neither region of origin nor producer for any of the wines, all tasted blind throughout the three days.

Nonetheless, both were from Russian River Valley, we learned when results were revealed. One was the spicy La Crema 2021 Russian River Valley Chardonnay, a substantial take on the varietal, combining characteristically tropical and citric fruit with ample oak, adding up to a wine elegant and long. (On the winery’s website, the wine is priced at $35, though other outlets price it closer to $25, perhaps explaining how it qualified for this class.)

The other was the animated Bravium 2022 Russian River Valley Chardonnay ($25), a spirited interpretation with seductively floral aroma, sunny fruit and vital acidity. I wouldn’t hesitate to pair it with the chunky corn, bacon and cauliflower chowder recommended on the winery’s website. Here’s the recipe.

Menu for judges to select whatever palate cleanser or cleansers work for them; the beer customarily is held to revive palates at the end of the day.

Cabernet Sauvignon

Our first day ended with what should have been one of the more dramatic classes of the competition, and it was – Cabernet Sauvignons priced at least $105. We had 20 of them, from which eight won gold medals, two of them spontaneous double-gold medals, which are rare, especially when five people constitute a panel. A double-gold medal is awarded when all members of a panel concur that a wine warrants a gold medal, and they usually aren’t awarded until after judges discuss the matter, sometimes at length. A spontaneous double-gold medal, however, is awarded when all judges declare during their initial round of voting that a wine is worthy of gold, without any discussion whatsoever.

Those two wines, rightfully, ended up our class champion and reserve class champion, the former the deeply colored and forthrightly beckoning Chimney Rock 2021 Napa Valley Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon ($150), the latter the complex, intense, balanced and persistent Brandlin Estate 2019 Napa Valley Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon ($110).

This Cabernet Sauvignon class both reaffirmed Napa Valley’s high standing for the varietal and scuttled the widespread view that Napa Valley vintners are so insecure in the stature of their Cabernets that they don’t enter wine competitions, fearing that a wine priced $150 or so might end up with a bronze medal, or worse, no medal at all.

Several other Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons showed exceptionally well in winning gold medals, including the deeply colored, tightly knit and long Barlow Family Selection 2017 Calistoga Cabernet Sauvignon ($120), the dense and dusty Kagan Cellars 2018 Rutherford K3 Cabernet Sauvignon ($140), and the sweetly fruity Mt. Brave 2019 Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon ($125).

A couple of others got silver medals, though I voted gold: The seamless, gracious, cassis-accented Howell Mountain Vineyards 2019 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon ($120) and the Modus Operandi Cellars 2019 Atlas Peak Edcora Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon ($150), about as complete a Cabernet as can be imagined, except for its curt finish.

A California Cabernet from beyond Napa Valley that turned in a strong showing was the inky, spicy and noble J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines 2020 Paso Robles Signature Cabernet Sauvignon ($105), a gold-medal winner.

Wines that reach championship status, from class champions to grand champions, are to be poured at the wine garden during the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo that starts Feb. 27 and continues through March 17. Revenues from wine sales, as well as from other events, go largely to scholarships. Since 1957, the livestock show and rodeo has awarded more than 20,000 scholarships valued at a total $275 million, say organizers. The whole exposition is run almost entirely by volunteers, more than 20,000 of them.

Nine judges partitioned into three panels of three each passed judgment on Rodeo Uncorked!’s top value, Texas and Chilean wines as the competition wrapped up last week. My fellow panelists included Dr. Justin Scheiner, assistant professor and extension viticulture specialist of Texas A&M University, College Station, left, and Effie Stees, who owns five wine bars, three in Houston, two in Belize.

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To find where my book “The Signature Wines of Superior California” can be found, please visit my website, signaturewines.us.