Print Options

• Print (no photos)
• Print (with photos)

Last Friday, over 30 wine judges assembled to taste and evaluate 520 wines submitted by home winemakers for the 2006 California State Fair Home Wine Competition, held at the Wine and Roses hotel in Lodi, California. This year's competition was organized by wine educator G.M. "Pooch" Pucilowski who also oversees the commercial wine judging for the California State Fair. (See more photos of the competition here.)

Ready to be poured

As one who has never observed a wine competition, I found the process fascinating. The large ballroom of the hotel was divided by a huge curtain down the middle. On one side, the bottles were assembled, labeled with an identifying numbers, and poured out into "flights" - rows of glasses labeled with the number of the wine. If a group of judges were judging chardonnays, three identical sets of competing chardonnays would be assembled, one for each of the judges.

A flight of white

On the other side of the curtain were the judges. With 520 wines to judge, obviously each judge wasn't going to taste every wine. The judges were divided into groups, 10 groups of 3 judges each. By my calculations, each group ended up judging about 50 wines. Judges filled out this wine judging form for each of the wines, judging the wine's appearance, aroma, and taste. (Take a look at the form if you want to see the breadth of factors on which each wine is evaluated.) I loved overhearing some of the comments the judges were making about the wines. "Fruit picked too late" and "stopped the fermentation too early" were among the comments I heard. How in the world could they tell that? (Answer: practice.)

"Super Judge" Ken Fugelsand demonstrating why they call a wine's aroma its "nose"

According to Pooch, one of the benefits of the home wine competition for the home winemaker is that judges leave comments and suggestions on various aspects of the wine as feedback that can be help to the winemaker improve her wines. This just doesn't happen in the commercial competition.

Notice the spit cup and spit bucket on the table with the wine glasses. If judges didn't spit out most of the wine they tasted, they would quickly lose the ability to discern the qualities of the wines.

How does one get to be a wine judge? "Practice," says Pooch. "Anyone can be a wine judge. You do have to take a qualifying exam. If you pass the exam you get on a list of potential judges. If you want to be a judge you should belong to a wine tasting group and get as much practice tasting and evaluating wines as possible." Sacramento Bee food and wine editor Mike Dunne has written about the process here: Think you'd make a good wine judge? Get in line (registration may be required to view the page).

Wine judge Martin Maxwell and Amador County Wine Club Volunteer Mike Bellamy enjoy a break between flights.

For most of the day I was doing my best not to distract the judges while taking photos (I was the official "photographer" for the event). Towards the end of the judging, I did have the opportunity to taste a few of the wines judged "double gold". One was a peach wine - light, sweet, and delightful. Another was a red, I forget which variety, but I have never been so filled by the aroma and taste of chocolate coming from a wine. I'm still trying to track down who made that one to see if I can finagle a bottle. According to wine judge Martin Maxwell, part of the appeal of homemade wines is that they are much more dependent on the grape than the commercial winemakers are. "Large scale winemakers buy grapes under contract. They can make changes in the viticulture that have an impact on the wine. They have better, more gentle wine presses. They have wine labs to analyze the wines and make adjustments to the yeast and filters. They have bigger tank facilities so they can do more complicated blends and have more consistency in their wines. Home winemakers can't do all these things, so when they make a great wine, it's all the more remarkable."

Links:
My Flickr photo set of the photos I took that day
A Wine Taster's Glossary
Wine Tasting Tool for Rookies