Hosting Home Winemaker Contest Tonight

[NorCal]

I live in a vineyard community and sell grapes to local wineries. The local wine making club does a group buy each year and buys 2-3 tons of grapes, then divides it up amongst the members.

I did a wine making competition/vineyard tour last year and had 19 wines entered. I expect around the same. It is going to be close to 100 degrees today, so hopefully that won’t keep people away. Winner gets 200 pounds of Cabernet Franc grapes this season. Expecting to meet forum member @CDrew for the first time and of course @4score will be vying for the free grapes.

I simplified the scoring sheet and came up with a better method to manage the blind tasting logistics. Last year I didn’t manage the blind part and getting the scoring sheet to the winemaker very well. This year, I have that problem solved.

Bottle Wrap

Scoring Sheet

Certificate for the winner

 

[CDrew]

Yep-Planning on joining the fun. Just got out of work so the scheduled start of 6pm is perfect for me. I really appreciate the invite!

I am bringing the first wine I made, so I hope the judges are kind!

 

[NorCal]

The event was really fun. A solid 100 degree day kept away some, but in the end we had a dozen wines entered. We grouped them in logical groupings; Cab Sauv based, Cab Franc based and others, four of each. All 100% blind.

We then scored each wine on its own merits and picked the best out of each grouping. Out of the final 3, we chose the overall best of show and the winner.

We tasted the three top wines and narrowed it down to two. This is where we had a disagreement. The two home winemakers chose one of the wines, the Sommelier chose the other and she could not be convinced otherwise. We decided to give out a second place (100 free pounds of CF) and announce the winners.

The first place went to the same winner as last year (different wine). He really has a knack for making good wine. In second place was a friend from work that helps me and @4score with the wine and pays for ingredients in exchange for wine. It didn’t even click with me that he entered wine that either I or @4score had made.

It turned out the second place wine was the Bordeaux Blend, made from the low brix Cab that I had really struggled with and ended up blending the heck out of.

Overall a fun night, it cooled down enough to be enjoyable and people were able to taste some nicely made wine and share their passion for this hobby. The evening ended in the lower Cab Franc vineyard, where it gets a lot of water from the “lake” right above it.

 

[ibglowin]

Nice looking clusters.