Ins And Outs Of Wine Competitions

Just because a certain bottle earns a gold medal, that doesn't mean you'll like it.

As a wine director at a restaurant, it's not uncommon to find myself tasting "in bulk"--say, 80-plus wines in a single day. Usually, I'm considering the quality of the wine in the glass, a well as the price point, where it would fit on my wine list and so forth. Everything I need to know about the wine is right in front of me.

But then there are the bulk tastings for which I'm serving as a judge in a wine competition. In such an environment, I probably know the vintage and the grape variety (or varieties), but not much else. In this case, I--like all the other judges--am tasting dozens upon dozens of wine purely to answer the question, "How good a wine/riesling/cabernet franc is this?"

At the New York Wine & Food Classic, which I just returned from, there were 24 judges, divided into panels of four. The first day, there were over 800 wines to be considered, so my panel's share was 140 wines. We taste, and then compare notes on each and every wine: Do we award gold, silver or bronze? No award? Often, we're more or less in agreement; sometimes not, and then some discussion and re-tasting may be called for.

While such a system does a good job separating the wheat from the chaff, it's not perfect. Some good wines don't make it to the winners circle because of organizational issues rather than questions of quality.

First of all, not every eligible winery actually submits their wines to the competitions. Second, what happens when a chardonnay with obvious oak-related aromas turns up in the "non-oaked chardonnay" category? Perhaps the producer thought the wine would perform well in such a category, and it might be good--but is it a good "non-oaked chardonnay?" Should it get an award regardless of its style? Some judges would say yes, others no.

Also consider a variety like cabernet sauvignon. A more elegant style like that of Napa winery Corison might seem lightweight alongside a more bombastic wine, such as Aviemore, also from Napa. Both are good wines, though I prefer the Corison; nonetheless, the latter's higher alcohol and extraction might stand out in a lineup, and even experienced judges can find it hard to see past that in a blind, side-by-side comparison. Typically, though, a wine like Aviemore would overwhelm a person and his meal were he to indulge in more than a glass or try the wine with food.

 Generally, the judges work these things out, but remember that the gold- or silver-medal sticker on the side of a bottle only tells you that the wine performed well on that day, in the competition environment, for a panel of experts. Keep trying multiple brands and varieties because some wines "test well," just like kids in high school. And as in school, the class valedictorian walks away with a 4.0 GPA--but plenty of other kids go just as far in life.