The annual ritual of wine judgings is gearing up again, with no less than five right here in our own backyard, more than two dozen others scattered throughout the state and another couple dozen throughout the country. All these opportunities raise the question: Do all wineries enter all judgings? The answer is a resounding: No! First there’s the cost, which can be prohibitive—about $50 to $80 per entry. Judging requires four to six bottles per entry, which all must be shipped to the judging locale. In other words a 10-wine entry would cost between $500 and $800 or more for entry fees alone—in addition to shipping five cases of wine.
A second reason not to enter is the philosophy wineries have about judgings themselves—as well as their own perceived image. There are many well-established wineries that never enter competitions, no matter how stellar their product. Why risk tarnishing a solid reputation unnecessarily? The plain truth is, consumers pay attention to awards. What would one think if their favorite wine only won a bronze at a competition? Obviously that the judges all screwed up. It couldn’t be that the wine is not quite as good as they think. Several wineries in Sonoma County and many more in Napa fit that description. In other words, don’t volunteer to get shot down.
How sound are wine judging results? I can only speak from personal experience, but I will guarantee that all of the judgings I run or participate in pride themselves on running completely blind judgings.
Speaking of which, this reminds me of the blind bicyclist who, after the floods in January, was riding at Annadel State Park and hit a sinkhole. I only suppose he was blind since he didn’t see the hole—but more critically because he couldn’t see the KEEP OUT signs posted at the entrances. But that’s beside the point.
So why are four to six bottles required? Can’t we use just one? No! And for several reasons. First, there is always the “corked wine” problem that happens about 6 to 10 percent of cork-finished wines. This topic has been covered in past columns and we’ll address it again at the end of the judging season. (This is one of the reasons I believe in pushing the use of screw tops is to eliminate the “corked” problem.) Each entry is allowed one re-pour from a new bottle to be sure it was truly a “corked” problem.
Second, if we’re doing a double round of judging, a new bottle would be needed the next day to determine if it’s worthy of a medal. This could possibly require a second re-pour. And finally another bottle would be required if it were voted ”Best of Class” and vie for the Sweepstakes.
A couple of years ago we had 6 corked wines out of 29 gold medals. It’s a disgrace that the industry has to address if we want to keep encouraging more people to drink wine. What other industry would allow up to a 10 percent faulty product to reach the retail market? Is there a cure? Certainly—use synthetic corks or screw tops.
Back to judging. During a competition, wines are arranged randomly by variety, except in classes that may contain some degree of sugar. Always drink from dry to sweet. A sweet wine at the beginning of a class followed by drier wines is a death note to the dry wines. Typically, dry classes such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris and most of the reds are randomly numbered. Sugar in the “dry” wine classes is a winemaker’s secret. There’s a stigma of having sugar in “dry” wines, but if you were to look closely, all of the mass-produced wines contain some faint amount of sugar. Remember, the American public has a sweet tooth. Industry wise, we talk dry but drink sweet.
Each judge has his or her own style and method of judging, but it all fits the notion that wine is meant to stimulate three senses: smell, sight and taste. Visual appraisal of wines used to carefully consider clarity. But with today’s technology, it’s seldom a problem—and certainly some sediment in old wines is a positive, not a negative. Color is evaluated as being proper for the variety and age. Young wines have a purple tinge and older wines develop a brick color. Also, unless you’re judging sparking wines, small bubbles on the side of the glass are not a good sign. It might be some residual CO2, but it could also be a delayed malolactic fermentation—not good.
The sense of smell is very critical to wine judging. If a wine does not smell good, it’s gone without even a taste. Some judges make notes, such as DPIM (don’t put in mouth) or STW (shoot the winemaker). Smelling wines is a double-edged sword, because off aromas from such sources as corkiness, dirty barrels or even bacteria can completely remove a bottle from a judge’s consideration. Often even a re-pour won’t be enough to change this powerful first impression. The bottom line: If it doesn’t smell good, don’t put it in your mouth. Excess oak is a killer for me. If I wanted so much oak I would chew on a 2×4.
Once the visual and aromatic characteristics of a wine are evaluated, we finally get to taste it—with all kinds of different parameters going on in our mouth. You will hear terms like “various fruit flavors,” “mid-palette characteristics” and “after-taste.” About two minutes per wine are allowed, and usually, we’re presented with 10 wines per flight. Just as side note, I’ll mention that we don’t swallow the wines (well, maybe once in a while). Otherwise, we’d need an ambulance to haul us home after 150 to 200 per day. I know it sounds like a terrible way to spend three days, but somebody has to do it.
Since wine is so subjective, it’s important that judges come from several different facets of the industry: Wine writers, retailers, wholesalers, academia and winemakers can all be part of a panel’s make up. Generally, five-person panels are used, with the odd number helping to prevent tie votes. Majority rules, and therefore three votes are required for any medal. Seldom do judges ever unanimously agree, and that’s part of the fun.
So now, with all your new insight into how judging happens, you can look at the results of some competitions and see if you agree with the judges. That will help you with your homework of a bottle a day.
