Wine Press Northwest- Iberian Peninsula Judging

Oct 5 / 2010

Filed under
Wine

A couple of months ago I was asked by Andy Perdue- Editor of Wine Press Northwest Magazine- if I’d be interested in the Iberian Judging that was coming up. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity to taste and judge with some of the industry’s finest. The latest issue of Wine Press Northwest Magazine (Fall 2010) that has the results of the Iberian Peninsula tasting is on newsstands now.

The judging was done in a quiet room atop the Clover Island Inn in Kennewick, WA. Judges included Ken Robertson, Coke Roth, Paul Sinclair, Bob Woehler, Eric Degerman and myself. The Northwest Iberian wines that we tasted included Albariño, Grenache, Tempranillo, and Red Blends with Tempranillo & Grenache like Brain Carter Cellars’ 07 Corrida Red Wine & Airfield’s 08 Hellcat.

Hank Sauer, Master Facilitator, and his team facilitated the judging from an adjacent room- there wines were decanted, numbered and poured. Each Judging Station had bottled water, cheese and crackers, a spittoon, a dump bucket filled with sawdust (set on the floor) and judging sheets. The wines were wheeled in on carts and placed in front of each judge in a numbered order. We all then swirled, sipped, smelled, tasted and spit (kind of funny to watch). We scored each wine individually then turned the scores in to the tasting editor for tallying up. Judging notes were then handed back out and we went around discussing each wine individually. Over a few wines, there was even a little persuading done when a judge disagreed with another’s scores and an explanation of why they thought a wine deserved a better rating would follow. After we reviewed the final scores, the wines were revealed. I was familiar with most of them but a few took me by surprise (Either I didn’t know the Winery or I didn’t know that a particular Winery was producing such fine Iberian wines. I’ll go into more about the Iberian wines we carry at Picazo 7Seventeen in a later post). The process repeated itself until all the wines were judged. The experience was a little intimating at first, but as I held in there and relaxed a little I had a great time and learned a little more about wine and wine judging.