September 1, 2010
John Hibble
Co-Executive Director
Shannon Flynn
Operations Manager
Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association
7605 Old Dominion Court
831.685.8463
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
What Do Wine Judges Know?
It depends on who you ask. This year, the Santa Cruz Mountains Commercial Wine
Competition Chief Judge, John Hibble, decided to find an answer to that question.
Normally, 48 wine trade judges from restaurants, wholesalers and retailers, decide which
wineries get the gold medals. This year, however, one third of the judges were chosen
from wine clubs as “Consumer Judges” whose only expertise is that they enjoy wine.
Several recent wine competitions have focused on consumer only, or women only
competitions. Some have focused on tasting sensitivity of different judges. It is true that
men and women often have different taste in wines. It is also true that professional wine
buyers and consumers may have different tastes. “What did we find out? We found that,
on the average, everyone agrees. But on any particular wine, they don’t” The scores of
the amateurs and professionals were kept separately and in aggregate. Further, the men’s
and women’s scores were also tallied separately. The results? For 175 wines the average
score was 86 points. The average score for the male, female and consumer judges was
also 86 in each category. The average score for the trade judges was one point higher.
Where the real story is told is with the individual wines. The top scoring sangiovese and
malbec rated an average of 94 points, but the men rated those 92 while the women rated
them a rarified 97 and 98. The cabernet franc was a difference of eight full points. For the
top rated Chardonnay, the professional tasters liked it better than the consumers by ten
full points. The judges were not allowed to influence each other so it goes to show that
good taste is in the palate of each individual taster.
“We are excited about bringing a wider field of judges to this competition”, said Hibble.
“It is important to have input from people who buy local wines at the wholesale level as
well as from our retail customers and overall the results are similar”. This year 35 local
wineries entered the competition with 175 wines. The best Santa Cruz Mountains red
wine, (based on points), is a tie between Clos Tita, 2006 Gironde, a cabernet blend, and
Soquel Vineyards, 2007 Cabernet Franc. The best Santa Cruz Mountains white wine is
Beauregard Vineyards, 2007 Chardonnay.
The Best of Show award is a taste off between the winners in each varietal category and
is tasted by the entire group of judges. This year’s Best of Show winner is Martin Ranch
Winery, 2007 Syrah, Santa Cruz Mountains, Lester Family Vineyard. The full results will
be posted on the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association website,
www.scmwa.com and at the Santa Cruz County Fair.
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