# Orange County Wine Competition



## Kraffty (May 29, 2019)

Well 2017 was my last, and best I believe, run of wine in California. I teamed up with a friend on two wines, a 100% Cab and a Zin blend that we're entering separately in this years contest. It's a pretty big competition, last year it looked like well over 100 judges and over 900 entries. I'm guessing I'll end up with a couple of Silvers but who knows. The real reason for the entries was to compare notes afterwards and see how close the exact same wines get judged. Should have results in about 3 weeks....
Mike


----------



## mainshipfred (May 29, 2019)

Kraffty said:


> Well 2017 was my last, and best I believe, run of wine in California. I teamed up with a friend on two wines, a 100% Cab and a Zin blend that we're entering separately in this years contest. It's a pretty big competition, last year it looked like well over 100 judges and over 900 entries. I'm guessing I'll end up with a couple of Silvers but who knows. The real reason for the entries was to compare notes afterwards and see how close the exact same wines get judged. Should have results in about 3 weeks....
> Mike



That should be interesting, I want to do the same thing with a 23 And Me but that's another story. I just got the results from a wine I entered in a competition. 3 judges judging the same wine at the same time with sometimes almost opposite opinions.


----------



## Kraffty (Jun 16, 2019)

Results in and good news bad news. The four bottles were awarded 3 golds and a silver. I guess I did a pretty good job finally but the petty part of me is disappointed that David and I both got gold for our zin blend and yet his Cab got gold while mine only got silver (again, these were the exact same wines). Truthfully I'm extremely jazzed at how my skills have advanced in 5 years and eager to get the new home built and be able to get back to wine making.


----------



## ibglowin (Jun 17, 2019)

Exact same wines?

So what could possibly make the judges come up with such different scores? Were the wines tasted blind or could the judges see the wine in their respective bottles?



Kraffty said:


> his Cab got gold while mine only got silver (again, these were the exact same wines).


----------



## mainshipfred (Jun 17, 2019)

ibglowin said:


> Exact same wines?
> 
> So what could possibly make the judges come up with such different scores? Were the wines tasted blind or could the judges see the wine in their respective bottles?



I'm going to assume they had different labels. With these large wine competitions I have often wondered about the experience/quality level of the judges. I've only entered one competition and with 3 judges tasting the same wine at the same time I was surprised how different the tasting notes were. I'll probably continue to enter wines in different competitions but will take the results with a grain of salt.


----------



## sour_grapes (Jun 17, 2019)

Nonetheless, congrats on a great showing!


----------



## 1d10t (Jun 17, 2019)

Obviously David has a better cellaring set up.


----------



## ibglowin (Jun 17, 2019)

My wines always seem to score better when I slip a "Grant" in with the entry forms.


----------



## Boatboy24 (Jun 17, 2019)

Regardless of the discrepancy, that's a heck of a showing. Congrats!


----------



## Kraffty (Jun 17, 2019)

The bottles in competition look like this, David went to the sunday reception, couldn't find the silver Cab entry of mine. It's a blind tasting. Will have a better idea when scoring sheets come back, could have been a point or two making the difference. Thanks all, think I'll have to enter them in this years Cellar Masters competition in Los Angeles and see if the extra 5 or 6 months improve the results.


----------



## joeswine (Jun 17, 2019)

It's all subjective, no telling who's really judging or their tasting ability.
None the less good job.
Don't try and figure it out just keep moving forward


----------



## 1d10t (Jun 17, 2019)

I'm mostly a brewer but I have a handful of people that have demonstrated that I can trust their opinions when it comes to palate. Mine isn't that sophisticated but handing my best beers over to anonymous strangers to get an opinion is of little use to me.


----------



## joeswine (Jun 19, 2019)

Here's the true test.
I sent a wine to the west coast the key was it was in the west coast style , red, nicely aged ,good structure, spot on, won best of show, nice.
Same wine different coast silver metal, go figure so the answer is, just take it for what it is worth and move on .
On the other hand, having , different oppions. Is cool, 
Now send that same wine to a third contest and when the results come back you balance out the findings then you Know where you really stand.got it!


----------



## carpcellars (Jan 4, 2020)

You have done well. I have read & been told that OCWS competition is a highly regarded competition. It is judged by other wine makers and they use the UC Davis 20 point judging method. Still judging is highly subjective. I’ve entered the past two years & always surprised at how my entrees placed & what the score sheets & comments have to say.


----------



## joeswine (Jan 5, 2020)

It's still very cool to send your wines to respectfully judge contest and getting feed back . Both positive and negative, it's all part of the wine world. Isn't it.


----------

