What can you say about a day judging wine when the last flight includes ouzo? Yes, the Wine Curmudgeon understands that this beats working for a living.
A couple of highlights from the first day of the three-day competition, held at Purdue University:
• I'm judging with Rene Chazottes of the very fashionable Pacific Club in Los Angeles and Indiana wine distributor Michel Pascal. We judged together here last year, and I learned a lot. Learning even more this year. Michel, for example, grew up on a vineyard in the Rhone, which gives him a perspective not many others have. Our head judge is Amanda Stewart, who is doing important research on growing hybrids.
• Gave a gold medal to a chambourcin and a double gold to what seemed like a cool climate syrah among the 100 or so wines we tasted today. Otherwise, quality seemed uneven, though there were some very well done sparkling wines, including a catawba.
• We judged a bunch of white wines made with grapes I had never heard of, like ehrenfelser and geisenheim. One of the reasons I enjoy this competition so much is because I get to taste these kinds of wines. Anyone can judge chardonnay; who gets to judge ehrenfelser?
That's why enjoyed my road trip from CO to WI. Nothing but hybrids in IA and NE! Not all were good, but some were surprising. I'll be in Santa Rosa next week for the NextGen competition. Looking forward to seeing what wines will be served up there ... guessing no geisenheim.
Posted by: K. Schlachter | August 06, 2011 at 08:51 AM