Warren Arseneaux Honorary Scholarship

The scholarship provides tuition for a CMAA International Wine Society member who has a passion and love for wine and is interested in continuing his or her professional development, to attend the BMI Wine and Food Experience or other education opportunity as approved by the IWS Board of Managers. Details

Wine Program Awards

The objective of the Wine Program Awards is to annually recognize the best club wine programs and laud CMAA member-managed clubs that establish and maintain fine wine programs for their membership. The awards are meant to be a hallmark of quality and assurance of an eminent wine program. A club that receives recognition should leverage its accomplishment when marketing the club’s food and beverage program to its membership.

Please note there have been some changes in the scoring system to better evaluate a club’s wine program. You will notice some of the questions on the questionnaire have changed and there is a more detailed list for what to include in your cover letter.

Awards are given in the categories of Merit and Distinction. On the 100-point scale, an Award of Merit is achieved when a club scores between 80 and 89, and an Award of Distinction is achieved when a club scores a 90 or above.

Rules of Participation

A club participates by submitting the following:

Part I: Submit your Official Entry Form Online 

Part II: Fill out the 2020 Wine Program Awards Questionnaire and send in with the following scanned documents via an electronic file sharing avenue (i.e. Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, etc. and share the folder with your submission with Sara Thom):

1. Cover letter - In your cover letter, tell us about your wine program. Please be as detailed as possible, discussing the following:

• Staff involvement
• The focus on the program
• Improvements made to the program over the past year
• Wine events held at the club over the past year; please include a copy of all wine event flyers
• Glassware used for the wine program 
• Discuss your wine training program for wait staff
• Discuss your cellaring conditions
• The type of wine preservation system that you use

1. Scanned copy of the Wine Menus - A club endorses its authentic à la carte wine menu by including copies of the wine menu and the by-the-glass wine menu (including cover). For any oversized or undersized menu pages, etc., please scan onto one 8 ½” x 11” size page.

1.  Scanned copy of the club’s Wine Inventory

Your entry must be scanned into one PDF in the following order:

1. Questionnaire
2. Cover Letter
3. Wine menus
4. Wine Inventory

Note: All items must be submitted via a shared drive, not via email. Entries must be received no later than Thursday, October 1, 2020.

Scoring: The Award of Merit and the Award of Distinction are attained by receiving a qualifying score from the questionnaire verified by the club’s cover letter and the menu entry. On the 100-point scale, an Award of Distinction is achieved when a club scores a 90 or above and an Award of Merit is achieved when a club scores between 80 and 89. The award certificates will be presented at the Wine Society Business Meeting at the 2021 World Conference and Club Business Expo in Tampa, FL. Certificates will be mailed to those not in attendance. All winning clubs will also be recognized in CMAA and Wine Society publications.

2019 Wine Program Award Winners