Competition Judging

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Felt like a work day. Had to get up , eat breakfast, dress and leave my "Casa" to head on down to the Orange County Fairgrounds and sign in to attend a "Judging Seminar and Workshop" for the Orange County Fair Home Wine Competition. This is put on by the Orange County Wine Society.

Came across my friend Clyde walking in at the same time and then David Scales of MAWL wines showed up.

The workshop consisted of the objectives for judging, discussion on how awards are given, the Davis 20 point scoring system, smelling different components of wine, both good and bad and going over the Peterson Method of Judging Large Flights of Wine.

After a short break we then proceeded to taste and score some practice wines. 8 wines in total, 4 whites, 3 reds and a dessert wine. At least my scores were fairly consistent with other people in the panels that I was on, so I wasn't in over my head. I did seem to score a few points lower than most but I was still in the range for same award given by the others.

I found it to be quite an interesting experience. You cannot take a long time to evaluate because of the amount of wines that will be entered in the competition. So you go with your first reaction and don't over analyze.

I do not know if I will be called for the actual judging in June. I hope so, as I feel it will really be something out of the ordinary for me. If not, then I still have had an unique experience just in attending the workshop and I did learn some things from it.

A day without learning something new is a wasted day.