Judges Hunker Down for Serious Swirling, Sniffing, Sipping – and Arguing • by Glenn Bardgett - Photo by Catherine Neville
Posted On: 09/02/2005 E-mail This To A Friend!

For most of my 30-plus years in the wine business, one of my greatest frustrations has been how flippantly the wine ratings of numerous “experts” are used by wine retailers. The 100-point system, so strongly promoted by wine writers to indicate the perceived quality of a wine, does little to show the true value.

While ratings are usually given by a single individual, medals at competitions are always given by panels of judges. Although there is no limit to the number of gold, silver and bronze medals awarded, impressing an entire panel makes the challenge of winning any medal, particularly a highly sought gold medal, very difficult.

I recently had the privilege of judging the Illinois State Fair Wine Competition and the Missouri Wine Competition. It was my first invitation to judge in Illinois but something in the range of my 20th year judging Missouri wines. When a wine judge looks at a row of wine glasses sitting on the table, the responsibility is formidable. Years of effort by winemakers go into each and every bottle. As judges, we give our best effort to look at, swirl, sniff, sip, spit and then, as a panel, come to an agreement on quality. (Drinking wine is great, but it would not be feasible for judges to swallow 200 to 300 wines in one day.)

Both competitions were basically organized in the same way, with two slight differences. Missouri has, for a number of years, judged with a single panel of seven judges. Its organizers feel that judging all wines with the same group of seven gives a stronger value to awards with no bias possible between multiple panels. The Illinois judging had three panels of three judges each. Their results show why Missouri went to the one-panel system some time ago. My panel in Illinois gave only two gold medals while the other two panels gave a total of 17 gold medals. It is possible that the other panels had higher-quality wines, but somehow I doubt that.

The other significant difference between the two competitions is the glassware used during the tasting. This would not seem to be a major difference on the surface, but the 6-ounce Libbey hotel glasses used in the Illinois judging could not begin to match the sensory magic created by the beautiful Riedel glassware that the Missouri competition purchased years ago. Great glassware emphasizes quality but also highlights any flaws that the wine may have.

Judging begins early in the morning with the first series of dry white wines. All wine tastings, classes, events, etc., are organized the same way as a wine service. Dry before sweet. Light before heavy. White before red. Typically judges are given white blends first, followed by varietal flights. (Varietals are wines that are labeled with a specific grape variety that must be at least 75 percent of the wine’s blend.) There may be as many as 10 or 12 wines judged together, and some categories such as Norton or Chardonel, two of Missouri’s most popular varieties, might have two or even three flights of wines in the competition. A dozen glasses containing our beautiful deep, dark red Norton is truly a beautiful sight. Judges compare the wines’ colors, sniff the aromas, then begin to taste. The whole room is soon filled with the gurgling noise of judges slurping and sloshing the wines in their mouths, attempting to hit every last taste bud to examine the wine’s true worth.

After the tasting starts, each wine is scored and the discussion begins as follows: I think the wine is a solid silver-medal winner. The person to my left feels the wine is a high bronze medal winner while the judge to my right believes it should be awarded nothing at all. The judges will then fight for their opinions and try to convince their peers to raise or lower their scores. Finally, a consensus is reached. One wine down and another couple hundred to go.

Awarding category winners is the next stage, at which time all the gold-medal wines are tasted again. For example, the gold-medal dry whites are tasted together to choose the top dry white. In Illinois, my favorite of the six gold-medal white wines was the Piasa Winery Traminette ($16) from Grafton. This off-dry Gewürztraminer hybrid had great depth and complexity, perfect for spicy dishes. Then dry reds are tasted, then semidries and so on. In the red category, I preferred the Baxter Vineyard/Winery’s Riverbend Red ($12) from Nauvoo, a wonderful blend of mostly Chambourcin with some Chancellor. In the fruit category, I was impressed by the port-style Galena Cellars Cerise ($12), which had amazing balance and true cherry character. (The winning wines appear in the sidebar.)

When all of those categories have been awarded, the most difficult decision of all is made: the overall winner. It is at this time that dry whites and reds are tasted with semidry and sweet wines, even including late-harvest desserts, ports and sparkling wines. This is the classic “apples and oranges” situation with the widest possible range of wine styles being judged side by side.

In the Missouri competition, the two wines that stood out to me were our first truly world-class dry-style rosé ($15) from the Adam Puchta Winery and a cream sherry ($15) from Stone Hill Winery. The Missouri Governor’s Cup, the award for the overall winner, won’t be announced until Sept. 23 in Columbia. (To attend, contact the Missouri Grape and Wine Program at 800.392.9463 before Sept. 16. Tickets are $75.)

For as long as I have been judging, I have heard the same thing on the day that I depart for the competitions: “Wow, you get to drink wine all day!” Well, folks, this is one of the most fatiguing activities that I do. Knowing from experience how difficult it is for a wine to receive a gold medal, I truly believe that wines competing for this incredible recognition deserve our full attention, and the winemakers have likewise earned our respect for their devotion to this wonderful product that brings so much pleasure to all wine lovers.

As for the end of a wine judging, I always look forward to a cold Budweiser.

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