43rd Annual US Amateur Winemaking Competition

[Kraffty]

I do have a question for those "in the know". 20-18 was gold, 18-16 was silver and 16-14 was bronze. So how is a wine with a score of 18 judged either gold or silver? How is that decided?

Mike

 

[BernardSmith]

Without destroying judges no matter what there knowledge of wine is ,is that sometimes amateur judges really don't know what the true characteristic of particular wine is,especiall trying to deseminate the northern varietalsost people I talk to haven't a clue what the term Foxy means,its all subjective but fun. I notice not one person ask about there scores with the great white contest and that would have been a good topic.

Don't want to hijack this thread but is competition only about hitting the "true characteristic of a particular wine"... What if the wine being made has no "true characteristic" because too few people have ever tasted a wine made from this or that fruit or have ever tasted "enough" wines made under this or that name to be able to determine what the possible "characteristics" of the wine are and which of those are the most desirable? What should a t'ej taste like or for that matter what should a braggot or a bochet taste like that allows anyone to say that this or that bottle nails the character? What if it nails a very different character... but one the judge/s think is delightful? And if looking to see how closely to the "target" a wine comes is the work of a judge why are published "targets" so amorphous, (your point about a wine being "foxy" ) as to be less than helpful if you were aiming to score a bulls-eye?

 

[ibglowin]

Usually its:

17 - 20 Wines of outstanding characteristics having no defects
13 - 16 Standard wines with neither oustanding character or defect
9 - 12 Wines of commercial acceptability with noticeable defects

I do have a question for those "in the know". 20-18 was gold, 18-16 was silver and 16-14 was bronze. So how is a wine with a score of 18 judged either gold or silver? How is that decided?

Mike

 

[joeswine]

Kraffty,just my op pion,20 to 18 ,18 to 16, and 16 to 14.usually its scored by total points not a single judgment.You got your overall scores dropped because one judge didn't like the style or taste of the wine. That through your total score into a tail spin, or maybe he or she didn't match up your work with what they understood to be that style of wine they imprinted on. Make sense? been their done that also I understand your question there's know sound answer. You live with the results.
Benardsmith,I can see what your getting at,, but understand this all wine contest have standards to which they go by and characteristics which are a key profiles by categories that is why you send them in that way..so standards are set and profiles are given, now if you make a wine with a blend that doesn't have a true taste profile and enter it in a contest more than likely you'll not place yet alone win or show do to the simple fact that the taste profile isn't of a set norm. I have encountered that a lot with my tweaking of wines,Ex,what started out as a PINO nior now has blackberries in the mix someone who knows PINO my taste it and say (no that's not PINO). foxy is a characteristic give to most northern American vitals. If you know the profile of the varietal your working with whether it's, grapes, juice or kit, meaning if a judge knows this wine in front of them and the style they should understand the profile and the term ( foxy). We had 2 like that in our great white wine contest an you could taste the deference instantly and see the expressions on the peoples faces as they tasted them not sure what they were tasting but it was different. Remember my thinking send it to a few events and if the common consensus comes back a silver then it's a silver, the one positive feedback I get from contest is not the verbiage is the standings. I get the real findings from people around me being honest with me when I ask them "how did it taste?" really! and then I adjust, and then I question them .

 

[acorad]

Hi guys, I'm glad you all have received your medals and feedback from the judges!

I've been reading the comments here and I have what I hope are some answers for your questions.

I've been judging at the US Amateur for over 15 years now. One thing I am so pleased to see is that the overall quality of the wines that are submitted today are far, far, above those submitted 15 years ago.

We are all continuing to improve, and that is fantastic!

Hopefully the comments from the judges, who in the US Amateur are almost always either home winemakers or spouses of home winemakers, are helpful in improving our winemaking skills.

Regarding judging, scores, and medals. We strive to ensure that all of the judges are as consistent as possible. However, the pesky truth is that judges are human and that means training judges is somewhat like training cats.

In particular, we all have individual tastes and aromas that we are particularly sensitive to or insensitive to.

For example, I have had very few wines with the classic "barnyard" brettanomyces infection, and therefor I still struggle with finding it in a wine. However, friends of mine who drink a lot of French wines can smell brett from across the room. On the other hand, for some reason, my wife and I (unfortunately for us) are finely attuned to corked wines and even the slightest amount of TCA ruins the entire bottle for us.

Those are just a couple examples, but judging wine in a competition where one of the main goals is to give feedback to help winemakers improve, requires that the judges focus on finding the problems, the "faults," in a wine. So a some judges will pick up faults that other judges on the same panel are not as attuned to, leading to some variance in scores.

If there are noticeable faults in a wine, the faults should be discussed in the comment section by the judge.

Also, our judges are put on panels according to their strengths. White wine drinkers judge white wines. Beer makers judge the beer-involved entries. Judges who are originally from the east coast and have a lot of experience with east coast varietals, judge them. Fruit winemakers judge the fruit wines. Etc., etc.

Additionally, all of the US Amateur judges go through multiple training sessions. And if a judge has been around for a number of years, as most of them have been, they've often been through dozens of training sessions.

Lastly, as you can see on the judging forms, there are multiple judges on each panel and each judge initially scores the wine individually. Then the panel - as a whole - agrees on the final Medal award.

So while I know the score and the medals are important to us all, hopefully the comments are the real "gold" and will give us all some guidance in how to continue to improve our craft.

Anyway, I thank you all for participating, and I look forward to seeing how much better the homewines are 15 years from now!

Best,

Andy Coradeschi

 

[cmsben61]

 

[BernardSmith]

Got my medal and feedback yesterday. Nice details

 

[Boatboy24]

Best of class

Congrats! Well done!!

Was that a kit, bucket, grapes?

 

[cmsben61]

Congrats! Well done!!

Was that a kit, bucket, grapes?

A WE selection kit

 

[joeswine]

I'm going to share with all of you my wins at Cellarmasters and a defeat, first I'll set the players. Then we can break down the judging in each individual win so that you can see what or what not they missed or how consistent they were and how the end results came to be..lets start with the Rojo Blanco, this was made with my own fpac. about 13%abv. The first picture is incorrect the last is the ROJO BLANCO.

 

[Amanda660]

Four dessert wine entries - 3 gold and 1 silver. Feeling rather good about my dessert wines (thanks Joe). Lesson learned would be to put a little more effort into naming - seriously "blend" was the best description I could come up with....Lordy. The score sheets are priceless - we'll done. Sorry didn't feel like dragging my butt downstairs to bring up bottles - long day.