Cellarmasters 40th

[Runningwolf]

Jim, in addition to what you said the judge my have tasted another coffee wine or port and based it off of that. How may coffee wines are out there, dam few. So if a judge tasted only one and liked it, now they're basing this one on the previous. Is this possible? Not likely but it's possible.

I use to enter wine years ago I thought was young, too old, or just not good in my opinion in competitions that only cost few dollars or less. Yeah I was shocked when they were coming home with ribbons.

 

[cmason1957]

In the wine club I belong to, we have an internal wine competition every month. A few months ago was ports. There was a coffee port (probably the same kit, but with no tweaks entered), also I have made the toasted Caramel port. I didn't enter it, as an aside. Both of these kids have about the same issue, in my opinion and some others I have talked with. They are both wonderful, very balanced kits. However, neither of them have much grape taste that comes through, as a result, I bet they don't do very well in competitions with professional judges. That is just my $0.02.

 

[jswordy]

Yeah, I had thought about that, too, that perhaps because of the fact that it is an outlier, it got dinged. Next year, that style may be all the rage. I've seen this a lot in farm animal judging. In some animal shows, what's blue ribbon now would not have placed 5 years ago.

That port sure tasted good to me!

 

[dangerdave]

Ok, here we go!

On the right is the Gold Medal Winning 2012 German Muller-Thurgau (kit contained elder flowers). Four (4) judges, and their notes.

1) No faults; brilliant clarity; flowery aroma, clean, pleasant, delicate, fleeting, "honey mead"; smooth texture; simple taste, "sugar snap peas"; good lasting finish; 18 points; Gold recommendation.
2) No faults; "nice light yellow" color; bouquet of "warm honey" and "the smell of stir fry before you cook it"; "sweet & balanced to itself, almost desert without the heaviness"; texture "very smooth & buttery, Fat"; taste of "some honey, very nice & simple"; "nice ligering" finish"; "nice wine, good job"; 18.5 points; Gold recommendation.
3) No faults; brilliant clarity, "beautiful golden color"; "floral, fruity aromas, sugar peas"; balance sugary, "good acid, sugar laced"; "nice body"; complex, mulit-layered flavor; lingering finish, "would go great with Thai food"; "Very Nice, Yummy! Good Job!"; 18 points; Gold recommendation.
4) No faults; "bright delicate look"; "flowery scent after openning up, and a hint of vegetable but not bad"; "sweet sugary taste, low acid"; "smooth rounded and pleasant" body; "robust sweetness"; "nice pleasant finish, lasted well"; 18 points; Gold recommendation.
My comments: Notice that several of the judges used the word "simple" while one saw this wine as "complex and multi-layered". I knew this was a good white wine, and expected a decent score.

The red wine is from a Bronze Medal Winning 2013 Chilean Juice bucket of Cabernet Sauvignon. After this wine was fermented dry and stabilized, I added one cup of medium toasted French oak and 2.5 lbs of dried black currants. I racked it three weeks later, and topped it off with a half gallon of dry blackberry wine. I knew this one would be a challenge for the judges, trying to figure out the complex fruit flavors blended with the cab sauv. Three judges and their notes:

1) No faults; "great color"; "tropical, pineapple" aroma; "sweet!!! acid it is a bit low"; "thin" body; "very fruity" flavor, "residual sugar"; "not lingering" finish; "interesting taste, tastes like atropical wine"; 14.5 points; Bronze recommendation.
2) No faults; "nice, clear" color; fruity "pineapple, banana"; "interesting balance, fruit aroma and flavors"; "good" body; "blueberry" taste; "lasting" finish; overall "not appropriate for catagory but very drinkable"; 14.5 points; Bronze recommendation.
3) "Maybe has ascetic taste"; attractive, typical for type, "great purple color"; fruity, essence of "blueberry, pineapple, very tropical"; smooth, sweet edge, low acidity, "sweetness not appropriate for varietal, nice flavors"; "very nice body"; "fruity tropical flavors"; "soft finish"; "very drinkable"; 13.5 points; Bronze recommendation.
My comments: Interestin indeed! Amazing that you can produce a wine consistantly labelled as "tropical, pineapple, and blueberry" out of grapes, blackberries, and currants. At the most, the wine is slightly off-dry (sweetened by the dried currants alone), as I added no sugar to back sweeten.

Over all, I am pleased with the information provided by the judges. Very close to what I expected.

 

[tonyt]

Great report DD.

One trend I have noticed on judges score sheets on my wines is that the score for clarity (judges first impression)seems to influence the rest of the scores. I have for the most part stopped filtering my red wines thinking there's no need to do so if it's decently clear. Crystal clear is not necessary for me and actually not even desirable. I seem to prefer my reds (mostly Italian) dark, no haze but not see through clear. So I guess it will be near impossible to gold regardless if it doesn't sparkle. I guess I could filter a bottle or two for competition but that would just be to please someone who is just going to take a sip and spit. Woe is me!

Has anyone else noticed such trend? Any comment/suggestion Dan?

 

[jswordy]

tonyt, I never filter, preferring instead to use a clarification process I worked out. The scores were nearly unanimous on both my wines. One judge dinged my blueberry muscadine for a "trace" of astringency. He said that would age out and he'd love to taste the wine in a year. Sorry, it is now all gone but for a small sampling. Very popular with the friends.


That judge gave an overall score in the middle of the 3 for that wine.

They all seemed to like the appearance of both wines. "Clear RED with rusty hues." "Star quality." "Beautiful and rich." "Beautiful!"

The places where I did not score at the top (except for the one 20-point judge) were subjective nose and taste areas where a person not accustomed to anything but vinifera wines might struggle in judging. It'll be interesting to see what comments I get from contests within the region where these grapes are grown.

 

[joeswine]

Coffee port

THANK YOU AGAIN JS AND DD,WHAT I THINK IS THE REALLY DOWN SIDE TO THIS WINE IS WHAT IT IS TITTLED AS TO WHAT IT REALLY, IS.
I STATED THIS BEFORE IN MY OPPION IT'S NOT A TRUE PORT AS PORTS GO, BUT A WINE STYLE PORT IF YOU DO IT AS IS AND WITH A FEW PROFILE TWEAKS, WITH OUT THE ADDED ACHOLO BOOST,SO IT IS REALLY GOING TO BE UP TO A JUDGES TASTE BUDS AND PERCEPTION ON WHAT A COFFEE PORT SHOULD BE LIKE AND FROM WHAT I'VE READ I'M NOT SURE THEY THEMSELVES KNOW I CAN TRULY SEE IT BEING CONFUSING TO THEM,BUT WHAT I'M GOING TO TRY IS INFUSING A BOTTLE OR TWO WITH A BRANDY AND SEE HOW IT TRANSFORMS THIS BATCH,THANKS FOR YOUR THOUGHTS..................JP

 

[dangerdave]

Great report DD.

One trend I have noticed on judges score sheets on my wines is that the score for clarity (judges first impression)seems to influence the rest of the scores. I have for the most part stopped filtering my red wines thinking there's no need to do so if it's decently clear. Crystal clear is not necessary for me and actually not even desirable. I seem to prefer my reds (mostly Italian) dark, no haze but not see through clear. So I guess it will be near impossible to gold regardless if it doesn't sparkle. I guess I could filter a bottle or two for competition but that would just be to please someone who is just going to take a sip and spit. Woe is me!

Has anyone else noticed such trend? Any comment/suggestion Dan?

I'm with you, Tony. I never filter my reds. Just the whites, myself.

 

[Gwand]

I joined a wine making club in September. The person who runs it is John Dimeo. He is a great teacher. John won 9 medals this year at Cellarmasters for following wines:

2012 Cabernet Sauvignon : Gold
2012 Reserve Cab. Sauv. : Gold
2011 Shiraz : Silver
2012 Rose Cabernet : Silver
2011 Ext. Aged Cab. Sauv. : Bronze
2012 Zinfandel : Bronze
2012 Super Tuscan : Bronze
2011 Reserve Cab. : Bronze
2011 Zinfandel : Bronze

I can't wait to taste some of the wines I made with him in 2013. This club and of course this forum are great places for a newbie like me to start.

 

[jswordy]

That is an awesome haul, Gary!

 

[Gwand]

That is an awesome haul, Gary!

No bragging rights for me. I am a new member of the wine club. Most interesting is that John entered 9 wines and all nine took a medal. Let's hope I am not too dense too learn from him.

 

[Brew and Wine Supply]

Just got my results back, and inclosed was a silver medal for my Chardonell! Yea!
Had checked the website for winners and did not see my name, may have to go back and check.
My three scores were an 18 16 and 14 1/2. Mostly good comments.

 

[joeswine]

Cellarmasters

CONGRATES DOUG WAY TO GO..

 

[jswordy]

YAAAAY DOUG!!!!