Vine Wise

E-Mail Article Printer-Friendly

Friendly Competition

Columnist

---

Richard L. Thomas
All articles by columnist

Hold the presses! Late arriving news. Forchini Winery has seen the light and is putting Sonoma County, as well as Dry Creek Valley, on its label. Also the Roy vs. Turley case has been settled out of court with no details.

Last month, I mentioned wine competitions are becoming as common as stars in the sky or cow pies in a pasture. Whichever one you can relate to, it’s a lot. It’s very interesting to note how most of them start. Frequently, it’s a group of people sitting around a table having a board meeting for some very worthy cause, and someone will say, “Hey, why don’t we sponsor a wine competition?”

From there, the ideas flow freely, and someone suggests they talk to others who already have competitions to see how easy or difficult it is to do. (I know this routine well since I’ve probably coached 10 new judgings in the last two years.) A couple of years ago, finding wineries wasn’t a problem. Today, that needs to be given some serious thought because wineries (even local ones) aren’t entering as frequently and automatically.

Why would a group (usually a nonprofit) even want to put on a competition? Probably the two biggest reasons are as a fundraiser and/or for prestige. The newest in this area is the “North of the Gate” judging sponsored by the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma. Eligible wineries need to be from north of the gate (are you surprised?), but they’re considering expanding their area of eligibility next year. On the other side of the coin, the granddaddy of all the local competitions is the Harvest Fair, which actually shrunk its eligibility several years ago to only consider wines made from Sonoma County grapes. Prior to that, any wine made by a Sonoma County winery could be entered, regardless of where the grapes came from. The major ripple from that change was mostly with the big wineries. So, the overall rule is to start small, work the bugs out and then gradually increase the eligible area.

The San Francisco Chronicle judging started more than 20 years ago by including only wineries from a small radius around the Cloverdale fairgrounds and had less than 100 wines the first couple years. This year, it had more than 3,600 from all over the United States and even some from Australia that are imported by United States wineries.
It doesn’t take long for potential sponsors to learn that it’s costly to put on a meaningful competition. A major expense is transportation and lodging for judges from out of the area. But for some reason, having them seems to lend an air of credibility. (Remember, if you have to fly to get there, you’re automatically an expert.) Even in our area, where there are many, many sophisticated palates, we still feel a need to bring in outside judges. No judges are paid, but being cared for with meals and lodging really adds to the total cost. It’s a great expense but a necessary one.

Then there’s rental of a facility. A few minimum requirements include a kitchen area with a fast dishwasher. It’s very easy to go through 3,000 to 4,000 glasses in a day, so if you have 1,000, you need to be able to wash and dry them all in a short period of time. Glasses can be rented or purchased. If purchased, a place to store them between judgings can be a problem. While I was working with the Harvest Fair, many glasses would inevitably sprout legs and disappear despite many doors and locks.

Facility rental and lunch can cost upward of $3,000 per day if you choose a place with any class at all. The Cloverdale and Petaluma judgings use their respective fairground facilities, which lack a bit of style but are certainly very functional. Finally, let’s not forget about first-class dinners to show off for the judges. With all this in mind, you suddenly realize it will require a significant entry fee to cover expenses.

Rather than simply staging a competition, remember your real role is to promote the winners, who only enter to seek publicity and hopefully use it to sell product. Of course, not everyone can walk away with a gold medal. But wineries that don’t win anything are never named, so there’s no negative effect of entering. Even the judges don’t receive results that name non-winners. As a judge, I regret that because it would be interesting to see what winery produced a given wine that you judged with the notation DPIM. (In judge-speak, that’s “Do not put in mouth!” Sometimes you might write STW, meaning, “Shoot the winemaker!”)

Other than expense, why would a winery not enter a competition? Certain wineries have a cult following, and if you’re king of the hill, why volunteer to get shot down? As long as your sales are good, you might not need the extra publicity. It probably wouldn’t look very good if your customers read your winery only got a bronze medal. It might shake the faith of the followers. Also, most entries require four to six bottles. If you’re a very small winery, you don’t want to use all your wine for judgings and leave little to actually sell.

One of the newer problems we’re being confronted with is getting enough qualified judges. In selecting judges, we attempt to have each panel represent each major area of the industry—academia, wholesalers, winemakers, sommeliers, retail store wine buyers and the like, along with at least one person from the wine writing field. The reporters are probably the most important because publicity for the winners is mandatory. When two or more competitions occur on the same day (which is happening more frequently), the competition with the biggest red carpet will usually win. We’re extremely fortunate in our area because we can offer potential judges a chance to visit this premium winemaking area on somebody else’s nickel.

The last item I’ll mention is that David Demostene, winemaker at Sausal in Alexander Valley, does not put Sonoma County on the label because he thinks the appellation is well-known enough without mentioning Sonoma County. I’m not sure what rock he’s been hiding under because I’m not sure a majority of potential wine drinkers even know where Sonoma County is, let alone Alexander Valley.

OK, time to get back to your homework. It looks like the 2006 harvest might be larger than we need, and with the surplus we already have, you really need to help out. A bottle a day will keep the vineyards green.