Some of the wineries, winemakers, and topics we have covered over the years often find their way as links on other wine sites. We decided to include some as a way to pay tribute to the wines and people who who have shaped the wine industry.

Amateur Wines Are a Class of Their Own
by Tim Hayes & John Koetzner

In today's society just about everything we purchase or invest in is judged. We have wine critics, restaurant critics, consumer rights advocates, political pundits, movie reviewers, and a whole list that goes on adnaseum. When you come right down to it, we as a society pass judgment on most everything we encounter.

In dealing with wine, there are basically two approaches you can take with your sensory evaluation. One is subjective (intuitive or romantic) and the other is objective (reasoned or analytical). Both points of view have merit, but seldom do they lead to the same conclusion.

The romantic, subjective approach is more superficial. The way the label looks, the shape of the bottle, who made the wine, if it gets 90+ points in the Wine Spectator, all are incidental to the wine itself and have a great influence on the judging of the wine. In contrast, the analytical approach to wine judging pays little to no attention to the external matters and focuses instead on the underlying reasons for a wine's good or bad properties.

It was with this analytical approach that John and I entered the pavilion at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds to participate as judges for the amateur division (homemade wine) competition at this year’s Somoma County Harvest Fair. As we entered the building, we could tell that there was going to be nothing romantic at all surrounding this tasting. Eight foot tables we strategically placed around the room, adorned with white tablecloths and high intensity halogen lights at either end of the tables.
After we checked in, we were issued our lab coats, ushered to our assigned seats, and given an orientation to the morning’s events. At the end of the overview, the judging coordinator emphasized that this was the amateur division and not the professional wines division, and if in doubt, round up for a medal and not down. If you have votes that look closer to silver than bronze, then give the silver.

With that, we were off. We had a very nice moderator who informed us that our first category was going to be Sauvignon Blanc. There were 35 entries to judge and we would get them in flights of ten and then a flight of five.

We knew this would be a challenge, because it is a very difficult proposition when one makes white wine at home, because most white wines need to be temperature-controlled during fermentation. If a wine gets too hot, it will show a bit of a cooked character and lose its fruity aroma and flavor components. We were impressed with the overall quality of the wines submitted, recognizing the difficulty producing them.
For each wine we were given an 8x10 sheet of paper on which we commented on the color, aroma, bouquet, flavor, mouth feel, and finish of each wine. At the end of the brief analysis (twenty minutes maximum for each flight of ten wines), we would mark gold, silver, bronze, or no medal at the bottom of the page.

Having finished all the wines in the flight, we would start with the first glass of wine and read the award we gave the wine to the moderator. Due to varying palates, a wine that we may have loved and awarded a gold, another judge at the table may have really disliked that style and would give it no medal. When this would occur, all the judges would pick up the wine sample and re-taste it, and then discuss why we awarded the wine what we did and what flaws we found to mark it down to a no medal.
Inevitably, we would reach an agreement and move on to the next wine. It is best if there are an odd number of judges, 3, 5, or 7, to break any ties. At our table we had four judges, and quite often when a wine would get 2 silver votes and 2 bronze votes, our table moderator would have to ask the judges giving the bronze if they could reconsider their vote and give it a silver.

As soon as we finished the medal discussion for the flight, volunteers from the SRJC viticulture classes, coordinated by Rich Thomas, would swoop in to clear the tasted wine glasses off the table, refill our water glasses, bread trays, empty our spittoons and within minutes we were ready to taste the next flight of wines in the category.
After we tasted thirty-five Sauvignon Blancs, we started the Merlot category in the same fashion. Forty-four Merlots later, we had started the inevitable process of staining our teeth purple making us look like we had been drinking bluing as a pastime. We followed that with a tasting of twenty-two Cabernet Sauvignons from 1995 or older and finished with flight of Zinfandels.

When all of the wines had been judged, all of the judges present (about 40 of us) were asked to judge the "sweepstakes" round. This is where all of the gold medals in the white category are judged against each other and all of the gold medal reds are compared to determine the best red and the best white in the competition.

This year there were five white wines that qualified for the sweepstakes white wine and twenty-one red wines that qualified for the honor. Although we tasted the wines judged as the best, we won’t know the results of the compiled tasting event until those home winemakers hear it announced at the awards night on September 25th.

When we were done judging over 100 wines in four hours, we were carted out of the pavilion and treated to a big Italian feast of pasta, salad, bread, soda, ice tea, and coffee, but thankfully no wine. While the upcoming Sonoma County Harvest Fair’s focus is on the professional wines and wine-related products that are produced in Sonoma County, we know that some of tomorrow’s winemakers are working in garages, barns, and workshops today, already busy at producing wines that will be judged next year.

In the meantime, besides just judging wine, the Sonoma County Harvest Fair has many different categories of what we do best in the county. Breads, desserts, appetizers, fruit juices, wine lists, and even people get judged (for their contributions to the Sonoma County wine industry and agriculture). The first weekend in October is your chance to be a judge too; don’t miss it.