A long day of wine judging.

[Runningwolf]

Today I had the privilege of assisting in the judging of The American Wine Society Competition in Pittsburgh. It was indeed a very long and interesting day. Doug Moorhead (owner of Presque Isle Wine Cellars), myself and Volker Schneider all participated. Volker is in the United States from Germany traveling around to different PA. wineries. He is a wine consultant in Germany and it has been very interesting spending this time with him. Just by coincidence he was in my group of judges in the competition and comparing notes with a person of this caliber was pretty cool. We were actually closer then I thought we would be on many of the wines. Taking a break in the hotel room now before heading out to dinner.

 

[Julie]

What an experience Dan! I know this is like a dream come true for you.

 

[Boatboy24]

That's very cool. Sounds like a long, but very fulfilling day. Do your taste buds just quit on you at some point?

 

[ibglowin]

Awesome opportunity!

What were you tasting today?

 

[joeswine]

wine tasting

Tell me Dan, after little while does it get a bit confusing or not?do your taste buds tend to go numb on you? After a while can you really taste the differences in the wines?good from the same? I know bad wines stands out on it's own.

Be interesting to know.I should be doing this around August 10, the Vineland wine Festival.

 

[Rocky]

Hey, Dan, it is a tough and dirty job, but somebody has to do it. Thanks for stepping up!

 

[Runningwolf]

Tell me Dan, after little while does it get a bit confusing or not?do your taste buds tend to go numb on you? After a while can you really taste the differences in the wines?good from the same? I know bad wines stands out on it's own.

Be interesting to know.I should be doing this around August 10, the Vineland wine Festival.

Thanks everyone. Joe you really do need to spit after tasting. Each group would do seven wines at a time and there were about six people to a group. Each of us would rate the seven wines, then we would discuss them amongst us. We did three sets in the morning and 3-4 in the afternoon. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be tasting so many.

The bad part was smelling and tasting the ones that looked darker than ice tea. I can't understand anyone even thinking of entering a wine so oxidized and there was a number of them.

 

[grapeman]

Glad you had a fun time Dan. I noticed the guy next to you had his spit cut full and yours was sitting right in front of you but I didn't see much in it. Either they just had dumped yours or you got thirsty!?? LOL

 

[wineon4]

Good job Dan Seems like you had a great day.

 

[tonyt]

Wow good for you Dan. I have said how professional the Pittsburgh event seened. Btw did you get the envelope I left on the seat of your car?

 

[Runningwolf]

Wow good for you Dan. I have said how professional the Pittsburgh event seened. Btw did you get the envelope I left on the seat of your car?

LMAO, Did you notice I kept quiet about judging until after the competition.

 

[Wade E]

Dan, Im glad you decided to do it and I told you it wasnt as hard ad it sounded. Glad you had a good time. Id do it again if adked.

 

[GreginND]

Brown wine, yeah. Sadly there is too much of that. Wine appreciation through EDUCATION! I hope the judges provided plenty of constructive criticism for the winemakers.

Looks like a lot of fun. I enjoy tasting and comparing wines but I've never had time to do the AWS judge certification training. Maybe some day.

 

[ffemt128]

Some of the comments were good, some were not. Some were barely legible to the point were it took several people to interpret the chicken scratch.

I had one comment on the Noble that only said "artificial flavor" thought it was odd as there was absolutely nothing added to the wine other than Noble Muscadine grapes and some medium french oak. Wasn't sure how to take that.

I did read over the comments several times and will continue to look them over next time I have one of the entries to see what can be done better. I'm a firm believer in learning through critique and I appreciated the time put in by the judges to provide the feed back.