Here’s the scoop on those ‘winner’ medals on wine labels

With all due respect to the bench, the responsibility of deciding lawsuits, leases, contracts and other disputes pales in comparison to the pressure of sitting in a room of experienced wine judges. After careful tasting and amid sometimes heated debate, wine judges must decide which wines deserve the acclaim and respect that winning a major award in a wine competition brings. For many wineries, these gold medals may be the only significant attention their wines ever receive. All wine competitions have several general similarities. Wines are always judged blind, meaning that judges only see the wines once they’re poured, never in the bottle. The wines are divided into categories based on grape variety and sweetness, and after some discussion, all competitors are given a score or a ranking, which eliminates the less significant wines and determines winners in each category. Category winners are then retasted to establish the most prestigious awards. Many competitions have an overall winner, often referred to as Governor’s Cup, Best of Show or Sweepstakes Winner. These are the holy grail of awards and are coveted by wineries. The two most influential competitions in our region are managed by the state wine programs. The Missouri Wine Competition is operated by the Missouri Wine and Grape Board and the Illinois State Fair Wine Competition is under the control of the Illinois State Fair. Both competitions judge about 200 wines. Missouri uses a single panel of seven judges who taste every wine, eliminating any variance between teams. Illinois has three panels of three judges each. Judges in both competitions decide whether or not to award each wine a medal; wines may be given a gold, silver or bronze medal. In 2006, Missouri awarded 29 gold medals; Illinois had 20. The gold medal winners are then judged a second time to determine which will receive the top awards. The top awards in Missouri are the Best of Class awards, given to one wine in each of the categories, such as Best Dry White or Best Sparkling. Best of Class winners are then judged a third time to select the premier wine of the event, which is awarded the Governor’s Cup. Illinois also designates Best of Class winners, but then selects three of these to receive the Governor’s Cup – one each for red, white and fruit wine made predominantly with Illinois grapes. Then it is from this group of three that the Best of Show award is given to the top wine of the competition. Major national competitions are also a great showplace for our wineries to garner attention. Venues such as the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, Long Beach Grand Cru Wine Competition, Tasters Guild International Wine Judging and many others have all awarded their very top awards to our local wineries. Given that some of the larger events attract more than 3,000 entries, these are truly awards of great distinction. I recently returned from the Jefferson Cup Invitational Wine Competition in Kansas City, Mo., and was as impressed with the quality of my fellow judges as much as I was with the quality of the wines. Only wines invited to compete may participate; organizer Doug Frost – one of only three people in the world to achieve both master sommelier and master of wine designations – personally selects all of the wines. This competition includes only American wines, nearly 500 of them. Judges determine which of four award categories each wine deserves: No Award, Certificate of Merit, Example of American Greatness and Jefferson Cup Nominee. Only the wines achieving the last level are held back for retasting to establish which wines will actually be awarded the Jefferson Cup. Out of 67 finalists, 19 wines were awarded the Jefferson Cup this year. The winners came from Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, California, Washington, Texas and Missouri – and only California had more than Missouri. Our local winners were the Montelle Dry Vignoles 2005, Augusta Seyval Blanc 2005, Stone Hill Cream Sherry, St. James Late Harvest Chardonel 2004 and Stone Hill Late Harvest Vignoles 2005. The Stone Hill Vignoles also had the distinction of being one of the first three recipients of the new Jefferson Trophy, awarded to the wines that particularly wowed the judges and received the highest percentage of votes. While competition results are simply a matter of what a particular group thought about particular wines on a particular day, they do offer the consumer a guide for selecting quality wines. Awards represent a solid opinion by a group of wine authorities, as compared to a score given a wine on a 100-point scale by a single person. Hard to win and a true honor to receive, wine competition awards are a great way for consumers to find the greatest American wines.