Debunking wine comeptitions?

[hartm]

I thought this was an interesting article...


http://www.michwine.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=More-bad-press-for-wine-competitions.html&Itemid=179


I guess you just need to keep entering those wines in competitions.

 

[AlFulchino]

yep....and the longer story was one i posted a few weeks back...i parked it on my vineyard page with its source until i find a better place to put it

movie reviewers is what i liken it to...some ARE on the mark...some aren't...what does it all mean to you will always be the end question

 

[admiral]

I have noticed this even in my local wine club. There are some folks in the group that I listen to when they recommend a wine. There are others to whom I don't pay much attention. All of them have been tasting for years but there are some with whom my palate agrees and some that it doesn't. Does that mean that one group or the other is wrong. I don't think so. They are just different.

I have always been suspicious of competitions where the awards are based on subjective criteria. This article adds to my suspicion.

 

[JimCook]

Admiral makes a great point here - if you can find someone whose pallete matches yours then likely their recommendations will match yours as well. For me, I know that if Jay Miller or Robert Parker rate a Syrah/Shiraz in a positive light then chances are Iwill like it as well. One of the problems I had with the Wine Spectator is the recommendations are completely hit or miss as they are supposedly based on a variety of people's tastes. That doesn't work for me, but for some of my friends it's solid. Wine rating and wine competitions are subjective by their very nature. I think wineries use the base publicity rules in terms of these contests - if someone gives you a gold medal then you are a gold-medal producing winery. In the case of people like Al and the-poster-formerly-known-as-Appleman, if this helps people come in and buy bottles than so be it. For us hobbyist winemakers, the satisfaction rests in our bottles more than the opinions of people we may never meet or share a glass of wine with.


It's also impossible for someone not to have a "taste memory" of a previous wine tasted.For the sake of my own medals, I hope that the wine the judge tasted right before mine sucked. *grins*


- Jim

 

[AlFulchino]

all good points Jim

especially "For the sake of my own medals, I hope that the wine the judge tasted right before mine sucked. *grins*"

that says it ALL!!!!!!!

 

[admiral]

It's also impossible for someone not to have a "taste memory" of a previous wine tasted.For the sake of my own medals, I hope that the wine the judge tasted right before mine sucked. *grins*


- Jim

And there it is. The ultimate point. Thanks Jim.

 

[grapeman]

I don't enter wines in competitions in general- I am just too monetarily challenged to spend it on an ego trip. Last year I entered a number of wines for one main purpose. I know I like most of my wines and I know the bulk of others that try them like them, but I wanted a bit of validation that they might be worthy of sale. Since I am in the process of getting licensed for a winery, that is important to me. If they medals help sell some wine, great, but I mainly wanted to know I wasn't wasting time or money. You see here in the northerly cold climate, our grapes aren't anything like the typical vinifera grapes and quite frankly a lot of them are challenging to make a good wine out of. So to me the medalsare a tool.

 

[joeswine]

I totally agree with the article HARTM,its all subjective to whomever doing the tasting,,I have seen the same results at different levels of competition,however its still nice to get some sort of review from your peers,especially if you don't know them and the review has some sort of standard...........

 

[AlFulchino]

"....its still nice to get some sort of review from your peers,especially if
you don't know them and the review has some sort of standard..........."

i can live w that reasoning..i respect that....i have always been a bit of a rebel...anti-authority...especially when i know so much corruption exists in the world in general ...and payoffs in the wine world are not unheard of...so my personal choice if to give the friend, relative, customer the authority instead...just my perpsective, albeit probably in the minority

 

[admiral]

Al, I don't think you are in the minority. I think most of us have an aversion to having our ourselves judged by an unknown and possibly tainted process. Wine judging is so subjective that it seems to me that some controls have to be applied. When we have people whose palates are "known" taste our wines, that is a form of control. Perhaps in some of these large tastings, control wines with known and agreed upon values, should be inserted in every taster's batch. I also assume that in these big tastings that every taster's scores are randomly "back checked" by a senior taster. These are the kind of controls that could add some strength to the overall scoring process.

 

[Boyd]

Personally I don't care for beans what a judge thinks.

I drink very little wine or anything else.

I make wine to give-away and if the people I give it to are happy with it and want more then I think I did something right.

One lady just had a wine tasting at her house and tells me very good.