OC Fair Wine Contest Medalist Gene Micco

The OC Fair promised a good amount of fun and interesting things to experience – and it delivered.  One such experience was the Home Wine Competition. There were several awards among the 85 winemakers and their 673 total vintages entered.

Among them was Gene Micco – president and CEO of Tustin Community Bank and, along with our own Chris Uribe, a fellow Tustin Community Foundation board member. As an amateur, Gene has been making homemade wine in his garage since 2000, much like his maternal grandfather years ago in New York. Gene, however, has stepped it up a notch having won two medals at the fair.

Wines were rated on criteria including complexity, silkiness and color, and scored by three judges on a point system – with 20 as the maximum score per judge. As a Gold medal winner his vintage did well, but to earn Double Gold, he scored in excess of 18 points from all three judges.

He calls his vintage Cabernet “Antenati” in honor of his Italian ancestory. Although he won’t be quitting his day job any time soon, as an amateur wine maker, Gene has certainly come into his own.