On Monday I'm driving to Sacramento to judge the commercial wine competition at the California State Fair, as I have been doing for the last 12 or 15 years. It's hard to keep count, but it's a fun competition to judge, and it always opens my eyes to some unexpected trends, up-and-coming winemakers, and wines from California that might just fly under the radar until they are tasted blind by a very competent panel of judges.
Not all wine competitions are equal. I generally only judge the wine competitions that have solid judges that I'm comfortable exchanging opinions with, who have some experience, who have traveled a bit, and don't think they are infallible or without some preference or bias and are willing to tell you that.
I think the California State Fair, through a succession of really good leadership, organization, head judges, etcetera... has become one of my favorite competitions to judge, and I've been doing it for a good while.
The volunteers who bring out the wines, tally scores, co-ordinate the other volunteers, the paid staffers, the management of the whole affair have only improved over the years. I can't say enough about the volunteers - they are pretty much paid in wine, and their ability to keep the whole thing running smoothly is remarkable. They are well trained by veterans, and many of the volunteers at some of these wine competitions have been doing it for decades. Some are even second generation. One volunteer at this competition that I met was a pediatric brain surgeon named Vince. As one of my fellow judges pointed out, "I guess we know who the smartest person in the room is."
Then there are the wines... This is a state fair. In a state that makes superb wine. A lot of the wines are not fancy in the least. Some of the wines are run-of-the-mill, some are interesting, some are really impressive, and that's what it's all about. Most of the State Fair submissions aren't from really upscale, fancy wineries, most are priced below $30 or $40, but they help to impress upon me what's happening around the state. There will be a lot of submissions from Barefoot. There will be some standouts from the Sierra Foothills. There will not be a lot of Napa Valley Cabernets, but there will be some. There will be wines from Lodi, from Livermore, and from parts even more exotic that that.
New Clairvaux winery, which is based at a monastery near Chico, California (a very hot part of California) has recently over-performed regularly with cleverly-planted hot-climate (some Greek) varieties in recent years. Winemaker Aimee Sunseri is one of the great underappreciated winemakers in California. In the past two years, 2004 and 2005, she won back-to-back Best White Wine honors in the competition with two different varieties: Assyrtiko and Moschofilero. That's like hitting 00 two times in a row at the roulette table.
These are blind tastings. We do not know where the wines come from, but sometimes the judges see some patterns, I know I do. I can tell you this: Aimee Sunseri is a REALLY good winemaker, and she has shown that hot climate grapes can do well in hot parts of California.
I'm looking forward to next week. I'm sure I will have some insights after a few days of tasting and will share them with you.
Tim
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