The Results are coming tomorrow – online first at SFGate.
A wine judge's day at work
It’s been a grueling week in Cloverdale at the top end of Sonoma County. Chris Sawyer is one of over 60 judges who lent a palate to help evaluate 4,913 wines this year.
Our team has been running what has become the largest judging of American wine on the planet. Granted they don’t have large competitions of American wine in China and Europe but nobody is doing it bigger with juice in the US.
Up in Sonoma County I’ll be on KSRO 1350 AM, discussing the action with Tom Simoneau tomorrow morning, that’s Friday my goodness, which is fast approaching.
On Saturday I’ll be on the KRON morning show, live on the tele with Henry at 8:45 a.m. to taste and discuss some of the big winners.
Later that morning at 10:30 a.m. I’ll be on KGO 810 AM with host Gene Burns and Wine Editor Jon Bonne from the Chronicle, reviewing the week of judging and the trends in this year’s competition.
See you soon!
I can’t imagine having that many wines and being able to tell the difference after ten wines or so.
How do you train for such an event?
Great comment and question. The judges are all experts in their facet of the wine business, education, retail, restaurants and journalism.
The must have a track record and wine journalists and buyers are quite used to tasting many wines each day.
You have to spit, spit and spit all day. And you have to focus, as if you’re doing the calculus problems you worked on at university.
Best, Ray
you recently talked about a wine and I only can remember the last few words: :de la Jerez”……. where can I find this wine in Sacarmento? thanks jim
Hi Jimmy,
Great question. These are the wines that we commonly refer to as Sherry, our translation of the famous town and wine region called Jerez in the southwest of Spain, down in Andalucia.
Sherry comes in many styles so look closely to see if you are buying something bone-dry like a fino or richly sweet for dessert like one labeled cream or PX.
Cheers! Ray