{"id":4186,"date":"2019-09-27T12:16:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T19:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danthewineguy.com\/?p=4186"},"modified":"2019-09-29T15:08:08","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T22:08:08","slug":"wine-judging-requires-swirling-sniffing-and-tasting-your-way-through-a-lot-of-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/?p=4186","title":{"rendered":"Wine Judging Requires Swirling, Sniffing, and Tasting Your Way Through a Lot of Wine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article originally appeared in the October, 2019 issue of Bellingham Alive Magazine<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell\nsomeone you\u2019re taking part in a wine judging and you\u2019re likely to hear how\n\u201clucky\u201d you are. Drinking all of those wines has to be fun, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly\nthere\u2019s an element of enjoyment to the process;  and most judges would probably agree that\nlooking for a near-perfect wine that stimulates the senses in terms of color,\naroma, mouthfeel, and flavor is both challenging and rewarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Judges taste wines and award medals as part of this year’s Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The\nkey to wine judging, however, is not drinking the wine, it\u2019s tasting it.\nSwirling, sipping and then spitting gives the taster plenty of clues about the\nwine\u2019s quality or flaws, body style, finish, and whether or not it\u2019s a good\nrepresentation of the grape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nthis tasting technique is essentially a form of \u201cwine speed dating\u201d (where\nfirst impressions count), from a practical standpoint it may be the only way\nfor a wine judge to remain upright during the course of the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take\nfor example last August\u2019s Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival. The pre-event\njudging featured nearly 200 wines from Washington and Oregon wineries. The\npanel of judges was allocated less than two days to blind taste through the\nentire list of entries and award bronze, silver, gold, and double gold medals\nalong with the Best in Show trophy\u2026no easy task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even\nso, the panel was able to agree on a clear-cut winner: the Thurston Wolfe\nWinery 2016 Petit Verdot; an expressive, full-bodied red wine from Prosser,\nWashington packed with black licorice and dark fruit flavors that finish with\nbeautifully integrated tannins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\naddition to the Petit Verdot, a gold medal from all the judges earned five\nother wines double gold recognition:  the\nEternal Wines 2016 Eternal Darkness Syrah, Jones of Washington 2017 Reserve\nChardonnay, Mellisoni Vineyards 2017 Chardonnay, Thurston Wolfe Winery 2016\n\u201cThe Geologist\u201d Red Wine, and Treveri Cellars Non-Vintage Sparkling\nGewurztraminer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Local\nwineries also fared well in the judging. Margarita Vartanyan\u2019s 2015 Carmenere\naged in French oak barrels and Rob Dhaliwal\u2019s Samson Estates Cassis Dessert\nWine both earned gold medals. The pair of Whatcom County winemakers took home\nan additional seven and three medals, respectively, for other wines they\nentered in the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\naddition, Dynasty Cellars\u2019 Peter Osvaldik was a perfect three silvers for three\nentered wines, while Tom Davis and Tracy DeGraff of GLM Wine Company scored\nsilver and bronze for their two entries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nis wine judging foolproof? Of course not. Every person has inherent likes or\ndislikes about certain smells, flavor characteristics, textures, or even\nparticular wines themselves. In other words, one person\u2019s recommendations won\u2019t\nalways align with yours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just\nremember, in the world of wine it\u2019s consensus we\u2019re looking for\u2026and that rarely\nmeans unanimity. When in doubt, the solution is remarkably simple: taste \u2013 and\njudge \u2013 for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in the October, 2019 issue of Bellingham Alive Magazine Tell someone you\u2019re taking part in a wine judging and you\u2019re likely to hear how \u201clucky\u201d you are. Drinking all of those wines has to be fun, right? Certainly there\u2019s an element of enjoyment to the process;  and most judges would probably […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4186"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4203,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions\/4203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}