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Congratulations, thats awesome.
roadwarriorsvt
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Great job on the wine! Congratulations!!!
Arne
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Good job, Jim. Arne.
jswordy
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This was the first one ever, Paul. And I now know how to make my wine to win, if I want to do that. I'm undecided on whether I do. My tastes and what the judges award are two different things. I guess I could wind up doing 2-3 "contest bottles" and then do the rest of the batch the way I like to drink it.
Thanks to everyone for the shout-outs. Now if I can just get my new home computer all loaded...
No, not that kind of loaded!
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Congradulations JS!
Did they give you the scores? I always feel that the best award from a competition is finding out what your scores were and any honest critisism the judges can offer. I can take that info and work to improve my wine.
johnT.
Did they give you the scores? I always feel that the best award from a competition is finding out what your scores were and any honest critisism the judges can offer. I can take that info and work to improve my wine.
johnT.
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Jim, was it the sweet wines that won?
I can tell you I have entered wine that got gold at one competition and nothing at another. I agree with John. Look at the notes if they even wrote anything and see how you feel about them. I've even seen some preety bazar stuff written on judges sheets.
jswordy
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Looong post....
I specifically asked for judges' comments when I entered but they are not provided nor are the final scores given. I was told that at one time both were provided, and in more than one instance, that resulted in problems with overly competitive types who raised Cain. It got real ugly one year, I guess. Since the judging is a completely volunteer effort, and first place pays a total cash prize of $10, second $5 and third $2, it was decided that the judges would not release comments or final scores anymore. It was just not worth the trouble.
That was too bad and disappointing, because the comments were what I wanted to enter for in the first place, win lose or draw!
Dan, the deal is that this time I had to enter only the wines I had made, and make them fit the categories they had available. It's far more common for people to tailor-make wines specifically for each category, and there are a handful of exhibitors who enter a wine in each category. (I only found out that you can have just one wine entry per category when I got there.)
The two general classes in each category are sweet and dry. There is no semi-sweet or semi-dry class.
By meeting the guy I did there (whose place I went to the next day), and getting to sample some of his championship wines dating back as far as 5 years, I got a clue about what the judges like. Right off the bat, I learned after tasting the first glass that had I doubled the sugar in my blueberry, it would have placed higher. Personally, I prefer my wine semi-sweet.
There also was no category for blueberry wine. Blackberry, yes, but no blueberry. So my wine won third in the "Other" category
My new friend has been making wine since 1970 and is a large part of the wine competition, as far as putting it on, and he is one of the makers who enters almost every single class every single year. He also has a daughter who enters most classes herself. That's why it's good that there are no labels allowed and that the name of the maker is witheld until after the wines are judged.
Joeswine's honest and detailed feedback on my wine was far more valuable to me than anything I learned at my county fair. Thanks Joe. Everybody who pours it raves about the blueberry, but you know how that is, the winemaker never knows if it's because it is good or because it is free!
Now I just have to figure out whether I want to tailor some portion of my winemaking specifically for competition. If I do, then I will have to enter competitions more broadly to get feedback.
I am planning to start a muscadine later this fall, and that one may have at least a portion diverted to competition. Fortunately, my young strawberry meets the criteria to re-enter next year, and it will benefit greatly from that year's rest.
I specifically asked for judges' comments when I entered but they are not provided nor are the final scores given. I was told that at one time both were provided, and in more than one instance, that resulted in problems with overly competitive types who raised Cain. It got real ugly one year, I guess. Since the judging is a completely volunteer effort, and first place pays a total cash prize of $10, second $5 and third $2, it was decided that the judges would not release comments or final scores anymore. It was just not worth the trouble.
That was too bad and disappointing, because the comments were what I wanted to enter for in the first place, win lose or draw!
Dan, the deal is that this time I had to enter only the wines I had made, and make them fit the categories they had available. It's far more common for people to tailor-make wines specifically for each category, and there are a handful of exhibitors who enter a wine in each category. (I only found out that you can have just one wine entry per category when I got there.)
The two general classes in each category are sweet and dry. There is no semi-sweet or semi-dry class.
By meeting the guy I did there (whose place I went to the next day), and getting to sample some of his championship wines dating back as far as 5 years, I got a clue about what the judges like. Right off the bat, I learned after tasting the first glass that had I doubled the sugar in my blueberry, it would have placed higher. Personally, I prefer my wine semi-sweet.
There also was no category for blueberry wine. Blackberry, yes, but no blueberry. So my wine won third in the "Other" category
My new friend has been making wine since 1970 and is a large part of the wine competition, as far as putting it on, and he is one of the makers who enters almost every single class every single year. He also has a daughter who enters most classes herself. That's why it's good that there are no labels allowed and that the name of the maker is witheld until after the wines are judged.
Joeswine's honest and detailed feedback on my wine was far more valuable to me than anything I learned at my county fair. Thanks Joe. Everybody who pours it raves about the blueberry, but you know how that is, the winemaker never knows if it's because it is good or because it is free!
Now I just have to figure out whether I want to tailor some portion of my winemaking specifically for competition. If I do, then I will have to enter competitions more broadly to get feedback.
I am planning to start a muscadine later this fall, and that one may have at least a portion diverted to competition. Fortunately, my young strawberry meets the criteria to re-enter next year, and it will benefit greatly from that year's rest.
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jswordy
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wait a sec it looks like there is still wine in the bottle....hmmm what kind of judges are these? dont they know the best tasting drinks are usually the last 3-4
I agree completely! I think the first 2-3 out of the NEXT bottle are even better!
