Moonshiner's Muscadine a disappointing third

[jswordy]

Well, the old-timey recipe Moonshiner's Muscadine took a third this year in sweet muscadine category at the Lincoln County (TN) Fair. That's my second third-place ribbon in a row. We are clearly not on the same page, wine-wise.

I believe I am going to re-enter the two wines I entered at other, more professional contests, though.

Very disappointed my blueberry-muscadine (Blues Brothers) did not place, and they now have changed the rules for the OTHER category for 2014 to state that you cannot make wines entered as OTHER out of any of the ingredients used in any other judging category (i.e., my bb-muscadine would not have qualified for entry). I kind of think they may have disqualified my BB-Muscadine on that in advance this year. My third-place wine had a 3 on the top of the cork, and my bb-muscadine had a 2 on top. Hmmm...

There are no judge's comments in this contest, either, so I need to try some others.

 

[Elmer]

You will always be 1st place to me buddy!

 

[jamesngalveston]

better watch elmer, he wants something..
still a good job wordy....glad your back with us.

 

[DoctorCAD]

At our county fair, there were about 25 muscadine wines. 3rd out of that isn't so bad.

 

[jswordy]

At our county fair, there were about 25 muscadine wines. 3rd out of that isn't so bad.

That's true. It's the most popular wine made here. There were probably around 30 or so entries in the sweet category alone.

 

[JohnT]

JS, do not take it to heart. This is a county fair and I am sure that they do not have experienced judges using the UC Davis rating system.

And (after all) 3rd out of 25 entries is nothing to sneeze at.

Great idea on entering your wine in other competitions.

johnT.

 

[wineforfun]

Jim,
Like I have said before, the "taste or quality" is all relative. If you like it, your friends like it, etc., then it's all good.

These "contests", in my opinion, are like bodybuilding shows, beauty pageants, etc., they are all subjective to who is doing the judging. Certain people are attracted to certain things. There can be no clear cut winners, it is just an opinion.

 

[jswordy]

JS, do not take it to heart. This is a county fair and I am sure that they do not have experienced judges using the UC Davis rating system.

And (after all) 3rd out of 25 entries is nothing to sneeze at.

Great idea on entering your wine in other competitions.

johnT.

John, it is interesting you point out the rating system. While registering my wine in the OTHER category, I mentioned that under California winemaking laws (which are pretty standard for the entire country), it technically could have been entered as a sweet muscadine, since it has less than 25% blueberry in it by volume. When that got a blank look, I dropped the subject.

Then came the rule change.

There are a rules that hold back the wines entered. All fruit must be produced inside the county. The wine can be no older than one year (last year's crop, or made since last year's fair). Since I am ranging farther afield now, many of my wines do not qualify for judging. I had a hard time coming up with these two to enter.

I also found out that 80% of the judges are from one extended family, which also enters its wines. Just saying...

I think I am going to join TVOS (http://tvos.org). They have a member contest in early January that's statewide. I'll try that one.

 

[jswordy]

Jim,
Like I have said before, the "taste or quality" is all relative. If you like it, your friends like it, etc., then it's all good.

These "contests", in my opinion, are like bodybuilding shows, beauty pageants, etc., they are all subjective to who is doing the judging. Certain people are attracted to certain things. There can be no clear cut winners, it is just an opinion.

Yes, I agree. Plus, my wines are drinker's wines. They are meant to be consumed by themselves and are not made specifically for a contest. I have already learned from several contest winemakers the differences in makeup of a contest-specific wine. But I just make mine for myself, and entries are afterthoughts.

I guess what got to me is that I had a bottle of the 2012 Best of Show muscadine and it wasn't all that great. I thought sure I had at least a category first place this year with one of those, and I thought the bb-muscadine was the better of the two. Shows what I know.

 

[wineforfun]

I also found out that 80% of the judges are from one extended family, which also enters its wines. Just saying...

That, my friend, is a huge disadvantage and kind of where I was going with part of my other post.

 

[JohnT]

Yup,

I made the mistake of entering wine into the NJ State fair. I even attended the judging. I was shocked!

For a period of about 3 hours, all of the entries were sitting in the hot august sun so that by the time they were judged, they were not warm, but hot. When I asked if my wines could be placed under the table and out of the sun, they just smirked.

The judges did not spit. As the two hour judging progressed, you could see them getting drunker and drunker.

They also decided to move my port entry over to the cabernet category because they only had one entry (mine). This sucked because they only awarded a single 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each catagory. Now how is a port supposed to compete against cabernets? They are completly different!

Since this experience, the wine judging was taken over by the AWS and now has UC Davis standards. Hoooray! I still think that if I wanted a prize pic or cow expertly judged, then the state/county fair is the way to go. If you want an expert judgement of your wine, then go elsewhere.